Poll: When did reading become so horrible?

[Akai Shizuku]

It's the way the education system is; it's far too linear. Students should be able to decide for themselves what they want to read. Not everyone wants to read the same thing, and not everyone learns the same way. Some people learn through reading, others learn through doing, some learn through both. The education system is shit. I advocate an entirely different education system:

 

[Lukeje]

I'm pretty sure if you were forced to play a computer game for a school assignment you'd get the same reaction.

 

[Deofuta]

Huh I personally love reading, however when someone tries to force me to read something it is pure torture.

 

[Akai Shizuku]

I'm pretty sure if you were forced to play a computer game for a school assignment you'd get the same reaction.

I agree. The issue is not entirely the reading itself, it weighs more heavily on the idea of imposition. When one imposes their will on another, the reaction is usually not positive. Nobody likes having things forced on them, even if those things are things that they usually like, and do on their free time.

 

[Count Igor]

As far as I'm aware, books are still popular
It's just the few kids that are complete thickos that complain
*cough* Let me explain. The only person who complains VERY loudly in my class is also the person that asked why Hitler was Bad.
Why Britain isn't part of the United Kingdom
Why is Northen Ireland nowhere near Scotland but still part of the U.K
How to spell Done
How to catch a ball
And finally, the prize winner: What language are we speaking again?

Those are all real. You may pity me.

 

[Dimbo_Sama]

It's clearly group mentality. That and that generally teenagers don't like being told what to do.

But I love reading, although admittedly mostly I read comics and graphic novels, I still read real books, some of my favourite stuff ever are by authors such as Issimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Oscar Wilde.

I think it's more that it's hard to find the time to sit with a good book and read especially when you have such an immediate interative playground as the internet.

 

[shaboinkin]

I'm a high School senior and for some reason whenever my english teacher assigns any kind of reading assignment it sounds like someone is being tortured, grunts and moans of dismay flood my ears and that got me wondering, when did reading become the thing of nightmares? Yeah sure it could be said that reading can be boring but they make it out as this horrible thing which is taking them to a dark room somewhere to torture them. I would like to know all of your opinions on this matter.

Personally, I hate fiction. I read to learn.
Also, all throughout my schooling, we were always assigned books that I had no interest in. There were a few books I read that I liked, but for the most part, I have no interest in literature.

 

[sleepykid]

My high school must be weird, because I never really got that. My class thought of books as stories, and thus much more interesting and relevant than memorizing noble gases or how to find the area of right triangles. Even the teachers seemed more passionate when they got to teach English instead of anything else.

I'm surprised people don't like the classics though. Granted taste differs, but I thought they got their status for a reason. And it could be the cynic in me, but Brave New World is still a book that I wish wasn't as prophetic as it is.

 

[Pyotr Romanov]

I, too hate being given a reading assignment. Not because I don´t like reading, on the contrary, I love it, but because I hate being forced to read something I don´t care about. Like anything Dutch.
Another problem might be that I´m usually reading 3 books at a time, so a 4th one I don´t care about just doesn´t really make me jump in excitement.

 

[Terrorist_school_drop-out]

While now-days people, especially young people(of which I am one) are more oriented towards a instant gratification way of life. Books are after all, beyond cultural vestiges, mostly entartainment and a means to pass the time like movies, sports or games, and in this day and age both informing yourself and beeing entertained are easyer to do, and in shorter time via internet, movies, magazines, games etc rather than sitting for hours reading books.
This is by no means a good thing but it's a rational explanation, and in a shorter version, people today are way to busy and way to lazy to read a book.
Oh, and one more thing, this book was asigned to you and your classmates by your teacher for school purposes, now I don't know what book this or how your school system works but did it ocur to you that said book may suck, or that only you may like it.

 

[Tanto-chan]

reading itself never became horrible it's when you have to read something that interests you less than 0% that it becomes tedious. since the loud chorus of groans was from you English class room then that's why. usually English teachers pick terrible books. (NOTE: I said USUALLY not ALWAYS some English teachers have good taste.)

 

[Brandon237]

I love reading. I rip trough books so fast that it becomes pricier than gaming at times. reading never got boring, it's just that what you're being forced to read is crap. Writing is the pinnacle of the human race's collective artistic brilliance. Our literature has defined the past, the present and most likely the future.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Well,
the song will explain all.

 

[Rusty Bucket]

Because books you read in school are shite.

Gardens Of The Moon get.

 

[Muffinthraka]

I have a degree in English lit; nevertheless I hated some of the stuff I had to read (one year I ended up with Wuthering Heights, John Donne and (nnnoooooooo!!!) Waiting for Godot).
I failed the year and repeated it at a different college (this time I got Enduring Love, The 3 Victorian Poets and... a play, I forget which one).
So it really depends what you get given to read (it get's worse at uni, you get a reading list several pages long.
BTW I'm an avid reader (I've just finished "The Girl who kicked the Hornets' Nest").

 

[Lemon Of Life]

Hardly anyone reads in my year. I've taken a break for exam revision, but am half way into a Bill Bryson book (which is superb) and have a stack of Terry Pratchett's to enjoy later on.

 

[RangerSERE]

Well when i was in highschool, it was more the fact that i had to read said thing. No one likes that, specially when of a younger age and anything forced upon you is a no no. Then again i didnt really like reading at the time either. I suppose if i was forced to read something now i would protest. But then again, highschool ends, people like to read or they dont. No big deal.

 

[Snor]

technicly you are reading now....

so it depends what you read

 

[AdamRBi]

Not a lot of Fiction Books have caught me, I've always been a lover of pictures. I'm at home reading a good comic. Then again, it the topic pertains to my interest, I'll read it whenever I get the chance.

Kids will be kids though, they moan if they're forced in to doing something that takes time away from things they find more interesting, and it's been mentioned that there's a lot going on in today's world.

I don't blame them though; if I was forced to read a book about a subject I didn't care for, like a fiction about a family in 1860 dealing with social issues, while I could instead be reading a book with a story more pertaining to my interests, like a Sci-Fi, then yeah... I'd moan to.

 

[Alex The Rat]

College, my answer is college. I'm one of the people who breezed through all my honors/AP English classes in high school and still had more than enough time to read novels of own choosing (when I wasn't playing Morrowind, that is). That said, when one has several hundred pages of dry historical text to labor through, the whole idea of reading for pleasure is difficult to retain... I'm just hoping I can get back into the habit after I graduate.