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I’m a very very avid reader and only enjoyed one book out of the ones forced fed to me in school.

Btw, I’m having major issues commenting on Lovelyish. In fact I can only do so in IE, and I have to log in through my Xanga account and THEN go to lovelyish to be able to comment… in opera I can’t comment at all.

I hated required reading, because it basically ruined great books for me. I enjoyed reading the book, but the weeks spend analysing it afterwards really put me off it. I read some amazing books in school, but none of them are amongst my favourites now. This is all coming from someone who LOVES to read. I’ve always been a bookworm, but I have to WANT to do it. Being forced to read and then analyse/write papers on books has never appealed to me.

I think it’s good but some teachers go overboard. Like if it’s over the summer or you space out the reading during the school year then great. I had one teacher that would make us read like huge chunks of the book & come back for the discussion the next day when we had 4 or 5 other subjects that required reading & homework time. And this was back when I was in 7th grade!! In high school, we did a chapter a night, which is more reasonable. Back then though I had a lot of work & a touch time so I went to sparknotes.com to read the chapter summaries to stay up to date! XD

But yeah I’m all for required reading. It gets the brain in gear. It’s a shame they dont do it anymore or give students current events homework. Public school education has gone down in recent years…

I am also an avid reader and I HATE the required literature. I swear they pick the driest, and sometimes most depressing books they can. Why take the joy out of it? Maybe the problem is that the people picking what is “required” aren’t in the same demographic as the ones who are being forced fed the books? Now as an adult, I would give The Scarlet Letter another try. Know what I mean? 

@Rebekka Holman@facebook - I loved Lord of the Flies and Catcher in the Rye, but I didn’t find them too enriching. I haaaated The Great Gatsby. I even tried to read it again just last year and I couldn’t finish it! What’s wrong with me??

I like reading and am a pretty fast reader, so I’ve never really minded required reading. I didn’t really have required reading until 8th grade when I transitioned back into the public school system (in elementary school, we had monthly book reports where we would read a book under a theme and then have a day or two of straight presentation. I read Moby Dick for one of those. I still don’t like that book to this day.) That year, the one that stuck out most in my mind was freaking “The Pearl” which I hated, have read again since, and still hate with a passion. 

I don’t really think required reading hindered my enjoyment of reading, and I actually enjoyed tearing things apart because I’ve had the good fortune to have had English teachers who didn’t press their own thoughts or agendas on their students.

In high school, I remember enjoying almost all of the books except The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne just smacks you over the head with his symbolism, it’s annoying. I have a book of some of his short stories that are a million times more digestible), and As I Lay Dying.

I LOVE reading, but we were required to read the WORST stuff in high school. Heart of Darkness? Lord of the Flies? I hated almost every book I was required to read.

I’ve never really been into recreational reading, I can pick up a good book from time to time, but not all the time.  I generally disliked the required reading, because the teacher’s always overanalyzed the books and gave the author’s more credit than they deserved.

YOU are now my favorite, for 1) recommending Mary Stewart, and 2) for using “ennui” correctly, and in a blog post.  I was mostly bored with required reading until university, but I do remember enjoying “Rappaccini’s Daughter” in early high school.

I actually recommended The Crystal Cave on my Summer Reading List not two days ago!  Link here, shameless self promotion for the win!

As far as “liking” or “hating” a particular so-called “Classic”… there’s no accounting for taste, and really, there shouldn’t be.  Part of the infinite variety of human experience comes from the fact that different people like different things… and thus create different things.  I do feel a bit sad for those who were exposed to certain works they could have enjoyed in a dull or difficult manner… to this day, my mother still thinks The Scarlet Letter was about vilifying promiscuity in women.  There’s also the large problem of simply being out-of-place and out-of-time; I can get a class of twelfth graders to laugh hysterically at Chaucer, but it takes a lot of work and patience.  Too many teachers find it easier to go “read the book and take this multiple-choice quiz about the characters”.  I’ll stop there, before I deride into a rant about modern teaching practices… I do feel sorry for the poor girl above who was subjected to Conrad in high school though.  That’s just not nice.

@sarahsmurfette@xanga - More than this, I think the disconnect is between the people picking the literature and the people teaching in the classroom.  While I can defend, at LENGTH, the various merits of Wuthering Heights, and the general influence of the Bronte sisters on the development of feminist literature, British literature, and the mainstreaming of gothic concepts into popular fiction, that doesn’t make the book a teachable text.  “Literary Merit” or “Historical Importance” are fine, but that doesn’t mean they will keep a class of learners interested.  The people picking the lists of approved texts are often a long way removed from the classroom… they tend to be a combination of legislatures and collegiate researchers, as well as the scourge of all success, “tradition”.  Give me a class of 15 students, and the subject “British Literature”, then let me select the texts, and I’ll keep ‘em entranced all year long, and quoting T.S. Eliot at the dinner table.  Make me teach Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and force them to write essays about the first and second great vowel shifts… well, then there’s just no hope.  As much as I would like to say that “All great books make great teaching”, that’s just not true… and until somebody invents a “teachability” scale for great literature, we’re going to end up with a whole lot of “classics” that make for bad, boring lessons.

I ended up loving “The Scarlet Letter” and hating “The Good Earth.” Though that was more due to the origins of Feminist Me, rather than Reader Me. I was always a reader!!

@Endrath@xanga - Thank ya! You and your list rule. Any in particular that you strongly recommend?

Reading is pretty much the love of my life, but I’ve always hated required reading because I can’t read at my own pace or have my own opinion on what certain parts of the book may mean. I’m a fairly fast reader, but I always slog though required books because they’re almost never enjoyable to me. Despite that, I’m kind of excited for this summer’s reading project: I get to read Pride and Prejudice, which I love. First time I’ve ever looked forward to a reading project!

novels aren’t my thing

@leslie - Hmm, I’d say head for The Ruins of Ambrai, Good Omens, or Hellspark.  That’s a pretty good variety.  You should make a summer reading recommendation list!

@Endrath@xanga - Too many teachers find it easier to go “read the book and take this multiple-choice quiz about the characters”.
I also hated when teachers treated the classic canon as gospel.  It was only when I got to college and we started analyzing the text and getting into literary criticism that I began to see the merit of teaching canon.  Most teachers don’t explain that canon is important because most of the works are the frontrunners of modern literature.  I hate Frankenstein, but I can appreciate that it’s one of the earliest forays into sci-fi.  It’s the same with other canonical works, but many teachers don’t take the time to make it relevant. 
That said, I love books, canon and popular.  I may be biased because I’m currently in an M.Ed. program for English, but I feel the classics are relevant.  They just need to be taught in a meaningful way and many teachers are just too lazy to work for it.

Hmm… I wasn’t made to read those, but they do sound fascinating.

I love reading! The first required summer book I read was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy in 11th grade. I enjoyed it immensely. It actually prompted me to purchase War and Peace, which I have not made it through as of yet. And I’ve never read The Crystal Cave, but now I want to because I’ve read so many other books centered around Merlin and that story. Thanks!

I don’t think being taught the great books and why they’re great is being “forced” to read them–it’s being educated. And, I honestly loved all the books on my junior high/highschool reading list, even/especially in AP courses.

As another already said, being taught *why* these books are beautiful/great is very important. It gives the student a whole new ability to appreciate art, past and present. 
And, art, good art, is vital to the human spirit. Only an evil, controlling, inhumane regime would try to stifle art. (For the poster who suggested that all fiction is useless).

The number one complaint I hear my students have about English class is required reading (we use the Accelerated Reader or AR) program. They hate it! But without it, many students would never read. It’s a good program because students can pick their own books along with assigned ones from class. I never had to do it as a student, but I would have loved it because I am a serious reader. I hope my son will be required to read when he gets to school.