Poll: When did reading become so horrible?

[sougo13]

It's more to do with what they have to read than reading. I mean, I could spend hours on end reading something I enjoy at my own pace. However, having read boring and depressing books like 'Ethan Frome' or condesending play such as 'An Inspecter Calls' is one thing but writing endless essays about them?

Urgh...

 

[Lekonua]

I really enjoy reading. I just finished Children of the Mind, and have begun working my way through the Dune series.


Unfortunately, reading gets a bad reputation because of all the boring crap we're forced to read in school.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

I think it has to do with the current generation's attention span and the "instant gratification" era we live in. People nowadays need to get entertainment very quickly, and books are more like a slow release, instead of the instant spike that other forms give.

Agreed. TV and the internet has ruined us.

I read quite a lot actually, whether it's magazines, graphic novels, manga or a good ol' fashioned proper book. I recently finished Kick Ass and I'm trying to find Stephen King's Misery now.

 

[Bek359]

Well, I like reading things that I personally want to read. High school gives you a lot of stuff that is not very enjoyable, but some that is really good. For instance, I really liked Brave New World, but hated reading Jane Eyre. Unfortunately, we spent a month discussing Jane Eyre, but zero time discussing Brave New World. I did not enjoy that time in class.

 

[LordFisheh]

I love reading, which kind of sucks since I run out of books so fast...

That said, most of the books I've studied at school... ugh. Exams on Pride and Prejudice coming up, and it has the most dreary, boring style conceivable. I know that was how books were written at the time, but that just goes to show that something old isn't necessarily good.

 

[Ham_authority95]

For a second I thought that this would be another "Things were so better in the old days!" thread.

OT: While there are books that I like, I'm not passionate about reading.

With all the books assigned in school, reading on my off-time seems like over-kill.

 

[tjcross]

honestly and this is makes me want to cut my fingers off for typing this but i blame videogames no since this is a gaming site let me clear up my statement i blame videogames as in the FPS type games the most since in an fps if you are not killing something within the spand of ten seconds you're in a cut scene so reading a book and having to listen to the alien concepts of character development and motives are lost on alot of teenagers now i'm a teen and i love books but then again i grew up with them i also grew up with videogames but i was playing an n64 and there weren't many games that didn't involve something more complex than run,shoot,reload,repeat and since i was using my mind i was able to get into reading as another form of entertainment even if i had to make the graphics and voices myself with my brain. teenagers now think they deserve everything but have to do nothing (for the most part) so imagination is lost to them and so is the art of a well written book.that is my opinion

 

[Ham_authority95]

Because books you read in school are shite.

I fully agree with this one.

 

[tjcross]

I love reading, which kind of sucks since I run out of books so fast...

That said, most of the books I've studied at school... ugh. Exams on Pride and Prejudice coming up, and it has the most dreary, boring style conceivable. I know that was how books were written at the time, but that just goes to show that something old isn't necessarily good.

tell me about it i read about 50-100 pages an hour (a decent speed i think) so i finish an average book in a few hours so i have to go and find a book i like and that takes about a week or so to finish it in a day or to and repeat the cycle

 

[Lawyer105]

I love reading - and I'm a pretty serious book-packrat. I only buy books I'll read more than once, and I own just under a thousand books now. The collection is still growing...

 

[Cryofthewolf]

It never became horrible.

One kid groaned because he had to do work, and the rest groaned because someone else was groaning. Too-cool-for-school-flock behavior.

In five minutes every one of them updated their facebook status with the deets.

This being said, if the book was "The Grapes of Wrath," the worst novel by steinbeck, the groans are warranted.

*Not bothering to read far ahead*

Steinbeck makes me want to fork out my eyes. x-(

OT: I really like reading. The Wheel of Time series by the late Robert Jordan is amazing. I haven't really read much better than him. =-D

 

[Luke5515]

I'll read books of my own accord, but when a teacher assigns reading (and most books in the Pittsburgh Public School System are absolutly horrible) I don't enjoy them very much.

 

[Shynobee]

You can tell from your poll that the Escapist community isn't your average high school class. Most of us here would be the kind of person that would enjoy reading.

 

[Chipperz]

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

This is utterly true. I was forced to play Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2 for my course. I've watched that sodding "War has changed" opening cutscene so many times every cliched, overwrought word is ingrained onto my mind. I spent the entire time very aware that I could have been platying Fallout 3 or Saints Row, which are good games.

That said, Red Dead Redemption comes out tomorrow, and I'm gonna try to get that used as an example of constructed non-linear gameplay. If it actually works the way the previews said it would.

 

[mexicola]

Reading didn't become horrible stupid people just became more vocal. Well at least that's how I look at it. Generations raised watching TV come to expect instantaneous gratification when it comes to entertainment so a lot of them find reading inferior to watching TV/playing video games. Needless to say I disagree.

 

[jacko124]

i love books but the stuff that's assigned in my english class is really boring

 

[Klarinette]

I think it has to do with the current generation's attention span and the "instant gratification" era we live in. People nowadays need to get entertainment very quickly, and books are more like a slow release, instead of the instant spike that other forms give.

That, and I think that because it's being assigned (as opposed to choosing yourself not only to read, but what to read), they don't want to do it.

 

[Chardan]

Oh I love me reading, but in reponse to the OP, I find that happens in my classes too, and with me 13 year old sister. It annoys me some people disregard reading with such immaturity, and slander the good name of books everywhere!

 

[vegalord]

It never became horrible.

One kid groaned because he had to do work, and the rest groaned because someone else was groaning. Too-cool-for-school-flock behavior.

In five minutes every one of them updated their facebook status with the deets.

This being said, if the book was "The Grapes of Wrath," the worst novel by steinbeck, the groans are warranted.

So fuckking true. You see back when i was in high school my teacher said our assignment was the grapes of wrath, then all of a sudden everyone started to complain. but i didn't cause you know why i already read and did an essay on grapes of wrath (yeah home school). So when i got home and check my space (this was back in 2005) i saw most of my friends complaining that they half to do the book.

tldr: I know what you are saying, and what you say is true

 

[Zenn3k]

Personally, I can't stand reading.

I'm not illiterate, I have a strong vocabulary (even if I spell-check most of them), I just don't get any enjoyment out of it. I'm a visual learner and as such am entertained visually. It also doesn't help that every book I've attempted to read tends to bore me to tears and I tend to forget everything that has happened in Chapter 1 by the time I make it to Chapter 2. I just do not retain when I read, at ALL, and that makes book very difficult to enjoy, or even finish for that matter.

I'll take a good movie, or better yet, an excellent video game any day.