Poll: When did reading become so horrible?

[SmartIdiot]

I like reading. Not stuff assigned for English though. The purpose of reading for English class was to analyse, dissect and eventually destroy every single little thing about a particular book for yourself. That's why I passed with flying colours.

When reading it should be relaxing and allowing your imagination to get carried away or drift off. Not this: 'Show how the writer uses imagery/assonance/alliteration/metaphors/similes/euphemisms/juxtapositions/contrasts/tone/dialogue/repetition to illustrate how X character feels about Y situation.'

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

I think my interest in reading was killed through taking English Literature for my A levels. Reading is never as fun once you've been forced to read and re-read books over and over just to point out some minor English trick that was used to express an emotion in some obscure way.

 

[tsb247]

I hate reading, and it's mostly due to the fact that my high school english teachers forced us to read some of the most idiotic books ever written.

I will sum some of their plots up:

The Bean Trees - Men are evil, and I should name this little girl, "Turtle," because it's normal and proper to do so.

A Seperate Peace - I really like that little Boy's ass, so I'll push him off of this tree branch. Maybe he'll die? I don't really care.

Of Mice and Men - Hey Lenny! Look! A bunny! *gunshot*

High school destroyed any love that I could have had for reading.

 

[Arkvoodle]

I blame Stephanie Meyer.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Reading is awesome, but also something that intelligent people seem to do more (generalization)
seeing as society as a while turns down seeing intelligence as a virtue.

 

[dommyuk]

When I was younger I used to read almost excessively, these days I don't read books at all though I can't think why. Which is a shame because I only got to the 2nd part of Northern Lights, and I was really enjoying it.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

I only like to read what I choose to read, not what I am forced to read.

 

[thiosk]

I liked "The Grapes of Wrath" just fine, but "Of Mice and Men" was so unremittingly depressing it put me off Steinbeck for years. One of my friends eventually bullied me into reading "Cannery Row" and I got over it, but jeez.

Perhaps I am blinded by having had to write a long synopsis on every chapter. Some of which are mind-numbingly short, such that the synopsis is of comparable length to the chapter.

I blame Stephanie Meyer.

You think twilight is stupid, and I think thats adorable, but Stephanie Meyer has done more for increasing readership in young adults than you ever will.

 

[Marowit]

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.

Hey!

That was me! I have dyslexia, and I would always get lost on the page and then feel even more awkward....

Thanks for reassuring all my fears that were running through my head while I read out loud.

/rocksinacorner

No probs!

Really though, there were 2 dyslexic guys in my English class and they were never asked to read because they didn't want to. No-one thought any less of them for it. Believe me, Dyslexic poeple are not the only ones who have trouble reading... and at least you have an excuse!

I could never understand why my teacher would always ask me, when it always such an arduous experience...maybe they thought they where some how helping me overcome it...?

 

[Crunchy English]

Reading is pretty awesome, but I haven't found a book that could catch my interest in awhile. Sometimes Nonfiction can hook me, especially history, but since I got into University I haven't read for pleasure. At least, not anything more complex than graphic novel or a roleplaying rulebook. There's so much reading to do just to keep up with my courses, I guess.

And yeah, the groaning is odd. My girlfriend doesn't like it when I use the phrase "ignorant masses", but I think its pretty accurate. Most people are just too stupid or self-absorbed to really appreciate literature. They'd rather read Tabloids or Facebook pages. And keep in mind, I don't mean that they don't understand it. If you challenge some brickhead to explain the plot or themes of a famous novel like, oh something easy, Don Quixote is a good one. They'll understand what's going on and give very matter-of-fact answers. But then they'll care more about their new shoes, or car or who won the hockey game last night or whatever.

The are just refusing to think about it on anything other than the most basic level. Willful Ignorance. I can't think of anything more frustrating. So yeah, that's my little angry rant.

Oh and yeah, you have to read some stupid stuff in High School "Tale of Two Cities" is Dicken's worst book by a wide margin but we read that. Meanwhile, Alexander Dumas goes unread. Criminal.

 

[reg42]

I love reading, but I don't like being told what to read. I don't enjoy reading MacBeth, seeing as it's a play and is meant to be preformed, so I hate being forced to read it at home.

 

[wolfister]

I am guilty of groaning in HS because of the books that we had to read not because I do not enjoy reading. Oh and the groans were very loud when we were forced to read Shakespear.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[

I could never understand why my teacher would always ask me, when it always such an arduous experience...maybe they thought they where some how helping me overcome it...?

Perhaps... it's not an entirely phsychological thing though is it? I thought it was more to do with the way the brain interprets patterns. Or am I utterly mistaken?

Either way... you've clearly overcome it now.

 

[Chrono180]

Because most of the books read in school are "Classics" which I like to define as "Books experts praise but don't read". Most of them are either boring, stupid, pointless, and/or irrelevant to our generation. Of all the books I read in high school, the only one I actually found halfway interesting was "The pearl" by Steinbeck.
All of the other were deeply flawed. To Kill a Mockingbird for example, took forever to get anywhere and had no real point. Shakespeare was virtually impenetrable in its dialog, so much so nobody in class understood half of what the characters were saying. Plato's Republic was even harder to read and was detailing a society that would make Hitler look like a moderate. And so forth. Personally, I think if we were assigned to read books that were not so archaic in their language, then the classes might have liked books more. But asking someone to read something over three hundred years old and have them understand it is a bit like trying to teach a senior citizen how to program a computer game. It's just not relevant to their lives, and much of the context is missing.

 

[Neikun]

It's not that reading has become any less bearable, it's that everyone else just became less tolerable.

 

[vaderaider]

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.

This happens a lot with me to, I try to keep at the pace everybody else is reading but the next thing I know I'm 3 chapters in front.

I think it was around the time the Twilight fans were released from their underground caverns.

OT: I pretty much have a book or a graphic novel on the go all the time so.. Reading is awesome.

So that's where they came from...we must drive them back somehow.

 

[Valkyrie101]

I love to read, but only read occasionally because I don't have time/enough money to buy books given the rate at which I read them.