What is a "Reader"?

The definition of “Reader”, according to http://dictionary.reference.com/ is: “a person who reads”. This, in my opinion is a somewhat inaccurate. A reader is not just one who reads. A reader is one who enjoys reading and reads quality writing on a regular basis, analyzing and asking questions as they go. Reading the words on the paper does not automatically qualify one as a reader. A reader must internalize these words and think about their true meaning, if the writer is alluding to something, or notice any other context clues. A reader must enjoy reading, because if one is not enjoying the time immersed in a book, they are not truly benefiting from it.
An important aspect of being a reader is reading quality books, not the mindless garbage that feeds our young generation today, especially teenage girls. I read primarily fiction. It is fun to read, exciting, and a momentary escape from reality. There is though, a way to read fiction effectively. Again I must stress the word: quality. Well educated adults tend to frown upon the book choice of the teens of today. The Young Adult section is filled with that mindless garbage and we are victims to reading it. Sappy love stories with barely any plotline, science fiction with such superfluous language that it makes me want to vomit, and vampire novels with potent grammatical errors even after countless edits, these are the books the teenagers of our generation are gobbling up. These aren’t quality books, and they are not teaching you anything. It can barely be considered reading.
The most extreme example of the teenagers of our generation’s horrid book choice is a New York Times Bestselling novel called: Twilight. Twilight is a Young Adult romance novel centered around vampires and written by Stephanie Meyer. The novel is centered around Bella Swan, a 17 year old girl who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington. While in Forks she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen and finds herself in constant danger. The plot seems decent enough if one is a fan of mystical love stories, but when a critical reader reads the book they find a countless number of bad writing techniques, as well as grammar and research errors.
First off, the main characters, Bella and Edward are so sickeningly perfect that they both are week characters, or “marry sues” . Although the author and fans alike try and claim that Edward is overprotective and Bella is clumsy, these are not flaws to build a personality on. Every person has flaws, it makes them interesting and believable. When characters don’t have flaws it is hard to relate to them. The flaws Stephanie Meyer uses are insufficient and show week character development and childish writing techniques.
Novels that are published should never, ever have grammatical errors. That is what editing is for. Grammatical errors in published works should be an embarrassment to the publishing company as well as the writer and are completely unacceptable. In Twilight there are a number of grammatical errors, which are totally avoidable and, again, shows that Meyer has childish and underdeveloped writing styles. “The room was familiar; it had been belonged to me since I was born.” –Twilight pg. 9 This quote was taken from the first published release of Twilight and has since been corrected, but really, there is no excuse. There is also a research error in the novel, saying that “true vampires” were discovered living in the sewers of London in 1660-1670ish when this could not even be remotely accurate with the book or life in general because sewers in London did not exist until at least 1859. This is another mistake in the novel that could have been avoided with a little research.
Though there are many low quality, badly written books that litter the Young Adult section, there is still hope for teenage fiction. There are quality young adult novels out there one just has to spend some time finding them. Read reviews and find books that are high quality that you can learn something from. Don’t just read the latest trend. Find good books for yourself and be critical in your reading. A reader is someone who reads quality material, fiction included, that they can learn from and enjoy.