Poll: When did reading become so horrible?

[Diligent]

I got a D in English Literature because I didn't read "To Kill a Mockingbird".

I still don't regret that decision.

Bravo sir. I was going to make a comment about that particular book.

The reason that reading has this negative stigma is because of the utter crap (like To Kill a Mockingbird) that gets shoveled down your face all through school.
There are excellent books out there that would speak better to current generations, but teachers have their lesson plans, and have to ask the same pre-planned BS questions that have students grasping at straws to figure out the answer the teacher wants to hear, not because they care about the story or have an opionion on it besides "stoopid & boring".

On a side note, the worst day of high school english was when the teacher said "This half of the class will be reading Heart of Darkness and will watch Apocalypse Now, and this half (my half) will be reading To Kill A Mockingbird and watching the 1962 movie."

I was like "Fuuu..."

Maybe that was just my school though. Other than that, I love reading.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Let's see, in my junior year of high school, I had to read a horrible book, Peace Like A River, which essentially was Christian propaganda distilled to nigh 200 proof. Needless to say, I hated every single sentence in that book, but I finished it nonetheless. However, I also had to read The Pit and the Pendulum by Poe, which I found rather enjoyable.
During my senior year, I had to read Brave New World, Macbeth and some novel by Grisham. BNW was great, Nacbeth alright, but the Grisham story sucked.
I guess what I'm trying to get across here is that some things we had (or for some of us have or will have) to read will be awful, but you might find some good books as well. As for why people don't like reading, well, our generation is just pants-on-head retarded (f you disagree, you are clearly the alpha pants-on-head retard), with an attention span that rivals that of the common housefly. Books are long, they require you to sit down for a few hours, but who has the time for that when there's Facebook status updates that must be read (or Myspace for the members of my graduating class)?
Kids have never enjoyed reading, but it's only getting worse now. I'd honestly like to see some of my favourite books integrated in a typical English curriculum; maybe Cat's Cradle, or Snow Crash would make some kids more interested in reading...

But one final thought: I would never blame anybody for groaning when the assigned reading is Frankenstein. If there is such a thing as a truly awful book, this would be it.

 

[Insomniaku]

If you're referring to when BOOKS became (for the most part) awful then I suspect at the turn of the decade

 

[Goro]

Stephanie Meyer sat down and.... *BOOM*
Bookstores carried a whole lot of suckiness.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Where I live, it's because most of the little inbred annoyances around here CAN'T read, and the books they assign to seniors are their mental equivalent of astrophysics. For me personally, I just find things like To Kill a Mockingbird and Moby Dick to be inexplicably boring.

If reading makes you as smug and uptight as some of the people in this thread, I can see why people don't do it as much.

 

[Tdc2182]

It never became horrible. It just became unbearable when the school systems decide what are works of art that must be read by everyone. You wanna know what valuable life lessons I learned from Shakespeare? Absolutely nothing.

But Harry Potter on the other hand, well, do whatever you want because you cant die when you are the luckiest person in the world.

 

[geldonyetich]

They're not groaning because they hate reading. They're groaning because they figure if they put on a show of resistance the teacher will cut them some slack. A fairly nauseating practice, but it works often enough for the behavior to get learned.

 

[Emilin_Rose]

I'm going to go with twilight. Now everyone seems to think they can get away with 2D, mary-sue characters and grammar like that of a walrus.

The only way twilight could ever be redeemed is if in the last book, Bella takes a side against Jacob and Edward, and they decide to kill her before realizing they have no reason to hate each other and going off to have hot man-sex.

Also, To kill a mockingbird. It may be a window into the injustices of our past society and incredibly gramatically correct with complex characters and valuable moral lessons, but dear god in heaven and devil in hell, IT WAS BORING. AS. FUCK. I'd rather have to read gay porn for the rest of my life than ever to look at that book again.(then again, i am a woman so gay porn is actually kind of a turn on for me.)

Catcher in the Rye i didn't like much either, but i made the decision just to wing it, rather than read the book, so i don't have the same deep seeded hate for this one i do for TKaMB.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Are you kidding me? 66% "I love to read" my ass. I bet most the people who said that are a bunch of phonies who read a page every blue moon.

Actually, I've read four books in the last 6-or-so weeks. So neuh! =P

I started reading George RR Martins 'Song of Ice and Fire' about 6 weeks ago, I'm only on book 4, but thats mostly because I either read on breaks at work, before going to bed or in transit to places. That and the books average about 1000+ pages...

I tend not to read fiction. They're at the bottom of my 'to-read' pile so at the very least it'll be a while before I get around to them, assuming of course I don't top up the pile with further non-fiction books.

The longest book in the pile is either, at a glance from where I'm sitting, Das Kapitalby Marx or Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Schumpeter. Fortunately there are thinner books inbetween, heh.

 

[Yureina]

Sometimes... but I can't really get into it that much anymore. I never can really get ny peace or quiet anymore, much less free time.

 

[meowman]

I read at least two novels a week. I make a point of it. It is my favourite hobby - only a book creates a fully-fledged world which can immerse you wholly, let leaves enough up to the imagination and personality of the reader that evryone takes a completely different, completely personal experience out of it. In the visual storytelling media, an RPG is the only thing which comes close, which is why I love them so much, but for me, nothing can beat settling down with 3 hours of free time and a good novel. Not even Mass Effect or Dragon Age.

 

[rabidmidget]

Maybe it was because it would disrupt their own private reading =)

That's the main reason I didn't like reading assignments

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I don't mind reading, but core books almost ALWAYS suck. and they have a 100% suck rate before college when your teachers actually have some say in what you're reading.
Second, reading is extremely time consuming. A movie takes like, 2-3 hours to watch. a book takes a lot longer retrospectively. If you're watching a movie, even if it's a bad movie, it's two hours. Nothing you can't handle. A bad book on the other hand, will force you to grate your teeth through 6+ hours of crap. Plus being forced to do anything is never fun anyways... unless your girlfriend has a domination fetish.

 

[Rooker]

It's very simple: Your teacher assigned this reading material. I have had books crammed down my throat because schooling dictated I should know what it was about and I thought they were massive piles of shit and that any bastard wasting my time trying to tell me this should mean something to me was not worth the salary being paid to him or her. The Great Gatsby was one such book. It's supposed to be some amazing and intellectual classic. I could not get past the first few pages and just pretended to care about the recaps during class. Getting it explained to me did not improve my interest. It was the summer of a man who was a socialite dealing with a bunch of other socialites all of whom seemed to more or less have their lives ruined by being exactly what they were. If I wanted a story about that, I'd walk out into the halls of that goddamn high school I was in. The exact same shit was there. Small community of idiots acting like they're not idiots. One is the grand master somehow. And so on and so forth.

Mostly I've just despised education systems as a whole lately, so I am likely equally treating some books very unfairly. I do have to confess though that I don't read nearly as much as I used to because I've wound up setting my life around this computer and the internet. I still love to read, but I have this stupid sense that I'm going to miss something important if I'm not on my computer which has resulted in many wasted days when I could have been doing something with friends or reading or just ANYTHING other than sitting at the computer. I'd love to blame the internet, but it's my own damn fault. I have two books unfinished that I need to sit down and read. One of which needs read because it's not mine and I should really get around to returning it.

I can prove that my dependency on the internet is my problem. I shut off the internet about two weeks before I moved out of a house I was staying in and read through I think seven books in the course of a week and a half. It's just sad that my reason is so weak. I should probably work on managing my time between work, enjoying myself on the internet and enjoying myself period.

 

[ethaninja]

What pissed me off in school was how the teachers always picked the most dumb, slow readers who used to stumble and tumble over every word like their tongues were drunk.

I would just read ahead myself and then daydream while I waited for them to catch up.

Oh god I remember that. I was one of the most fluent readers/speakers in my class, and I would never get chosen, so I had to listen to them babble and attempt to read even the simplest sentances in a droney monotone accent.

 

[FourEyedPandora]

I never had that problem because I've always loved reading. Of course, I've wanted to write novels since I was in sixth grade, so reading has always been important to me, and my life style.

I don't think it's reading itself, but what they're reading people have a problem with. Anyone can find enjoyment in reading if they find the right stuff to read. May it be news, fan fiction, forums, etc. Sure, it's not the reading that people are familiar with, in the sense of books and things, but some people just don't like reading stories and things.

 

[Pegghead]

I like to read but the plot has to be enthralling otherwise I'll lose interest (But that's the case with any other form of story-telling). To me alot of modern day books just aren't up to that, when they aren't about angsty, rich, un-likeable teenagers who have to save the world they're about gritty crimes and bad attempts at mimicking other stories.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Frankly I blame the shitty collection of books laughingly referred to as "The Classics." Good on ya teachers, you've introduced the kids to the great epics of the past, now why don't you pick some books that aren't about rich British women and their boring ass-love affairs (I'm looking at you Pride and Prejudice)

That's not to say they all suck, indeed there are a great many that are very enjoyable to read: The Great Gatsby, The Picture of Dorian Grey, and The Canterbury Tales just to name a few. (least those are the ones I enjoyed).

I was really never one to complain when assigned a book because now-a-days if you don't like it you don't have to read it(how do you think I survived Pride and Prejudice?), of course there's the inevitable paper that must be written about them. I never any issue with that because I am the self-crowned King of Bullshit. Its a skill developed very easily by just posting on internet forums (IE places like here ). Simply pick three loose topics your teacher has identified as important to learning about the story, pick a few minute details you can remember from the book and equate them to generic problems of today (make sure you've written em on a sticky note for this next part), finally begin typing and let your mind drift from one random thought to another.

Depending upon the length of your paper to be written you should have grade A (or a B at least) in no more than 3hrs depending on how many breaks you take. This tried and true method has served me well for many a year both in the classroom and outside it (like when making a lengthy point in a thread )

So long as in the end you converge your points back into the overall topic in a semi-convincing manner you will never write a shitty paper again. In fact I would wager to say it is student's inability to actually write papers of any length that cause them to take such a dreary outlook when tasked with reading a book for school. Not neccessarily laziness in my opinion, but more ignorance brought about what is deemed as "acceptable" teaching methods and material in this day and age. With those standards have come newer standards for what is considered "a good book", thus why to most of us (myself included) "The Classics" are no longer classic.

Spoiler: Read at your own risk

If you paid any attention to what I just wrote you'll see I've demonstrated my method in full...happy writing

 

[iccted]

having to read and more significantly, having to analyse literature, is a pain if you have no choice interest in the book. take for example my gcses; for english literature we did Lord of the Flies. at the time it bored me rigid but i could analyse a lot of it in my exam. several years later, i want to read it on my terms because i want to.

reading for pleasure or study are very different things e.g. i would be surprised to see very many people reading Chaucer for shits n giggles when "i am legend" (v differnt from the film, check it out) is still on shelves, but thats according to my tastes.