My son is 15 years old and has always loved reading. But he always reads the same books! He's always rereading books like the Hunger Games and the Lord of the Rings and never tries anything new. I wish he would read something else than science fiction because those books aren't good for him – he should be trying literature and classics by now, not the same books again and again. I buy him books, but he just puts them on the shelf and ignores them. What can I do?

There are two kinds of readers: the one's who reread and the one's who don't. It is a very normal thing to want to reread books – the argument that we shouldn't reread titles because there are too many books out there to discover simply sets the impossible standard that we are not good readers unless we read everything. Sometimes, one becomes a better reader simply by reading what you enjoy, rather than what others have deemed more worthy.

Your son isn't reading anything new or trying the books you buy him. Is it perhaps because you are buying books you want him to read, rather than books he's interested in? Your description of science fiction as not "good for him" suggests that maybe you have some prejudices against the genre. This is very common, in my experience, with readers who have never tried reading the genre, or who gave it a go once and never tried again. It is harsh to hold one book responsible for the quality of a whole genre, but it is sadly something a lot of people do. If you really want your son to read classical, weighty literature, there are plenty of science fiction and fantasy books out there that are incredibly well-written and full of big themes to ponder on.

Your son has clearly found something in science fiction and fantasy that clicks with him. That you have written to us suggests that you are open to ideas. Instead of buying classical literature, why don't you foster his love for reading now with books he might be more open to trying now?

You say your son loves the Lord of the Rings – has he read some of Tolkien's other work, such as the Silmarillion or perhaps his interpretations of classical poems, The Fall of Arthur or his Beowulf? Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy is a wonderful gothic classic, or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Quartet. More recent books like The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss or The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, might also appeal to his love for fantasy.

Your son also likes the Hunger Games trilogy – he might like it because of the dystopian themes. You could always give him Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, The Sleeper Awakes by H. G Wells or Fahrenheit 451 by Raymond Bradbury for some classic, historically important dystopian books. Newer books like The Maze Runner by James Dashner or Gone by Michael Grant are great, survival adventures about teenagers for teenagers.

Don't be worried about your son rereading books. It's great that he is reading at all and that he loves it so much, as you say. He might be very busy with school or work, and these books provide a pleasant, entertaining escape for him. He has the rest of his life to read literature – and if you foster his love for reading now, he will discover them in his own time.

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