Reading Habit Begins at Home

Re “Coming of Age on the Printed Page” (Jan 25): I remember going to the local grocery store and sitting at the magazine stand for hours at a time to read Mad magazine and Cracked. It was a form of escape from the dreadful reality society was (and is) amid street gangs. Soon I began to check out library books on a regular basis--simple stories such as “Freckle Juice,” to everything from Judy Blume, S.E. Hinton, to Louis L’Amour and countless other stories, magazines and newspapers.

As I grew out of that genre, my interests graduated from young adult literature to sociology, history, mythology, philosophy, poetry, religions and classic literature.

I strongly agree with Dale Buboltz in the article. It should not matter if young people are reading comic books or the Sears Roebuck catalogue. What does matter is that they form a habit. A habit parents should support.

I went from Alfred E. Newman to James Baldwin, Carlos Castaneda, Aldous Huxley, Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Socrates, Alex Haley and Daniel J. Boorstin. Not bad for a man with a ninth-grade education. (I had to work.)

ENRIQUE SALCEDO JR.

Van Nuys

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Driving home yesterday evening from Hollywood (where my car had just been broken into), I got to thinking about Francesca Lia Block’s young adult novel “Weetzie Bat,” which has more than once been cited by your writers as a book with a joyous positive vision of L.A. that we can all look to in these troubled times (“ ‘Weetzie Bat’ Proves Someone Understands,” Jan. 25).

The thing you have to remember about “Weetzie Bat” is that it is a period piece. Like “Ramona” or “The Big Sleep,” it offers a nostalgic glimpse of a Southern California that exists now only in legend.

The “glam and slam” of the magical realist “Shangri-L.A.” Block describes is a pre-recession, pre-riot world full of carefree blond punkettes cruising down Sunset with the top down munching Oki Dogs. That was more than five years ago. Wake up, dreamers. The palm trees are burning.

ANNE SHARP GALBRAITH

Glendale