Reading. Too many people say they hate reading because it’s boring or there is no point. Most cite the books they went over (probably never read) in school. They think everything is going to be like Romeo and Juliet or something. They don’t seem to realize that you study classics in school and that there are troves of modern books that they’d enjoy. I like to find out their favorite movies and get them an audio book in the same genre. It’s easier to get them to listen to one than to read one. I now have a handful of people who come to me asking what they should listen to or read next.
Seriously, this. I can’t stand to read “the classics” but I love reading things that interest me. Would be nice of schools recognized that and encouraged reading just for the sake of it rather than forcing kids to trudge through endless stanzas of “ye art incorrect and thou must protest this injustice. Oh Horatio!”. Let kids do book reports on Harry Potter (or whatever’s cool these days). At least they’re reading and their brain cells are firing.
Provided it’s got a decent narrator, audiobooks are like literal bedtime stories, and a lot of players have “sleep mode” that will either set a timer or stop it after the current chapter. Seems like an easy way to get people into them, IMO.
I have two of Stephen Fry’s autobiographies on audiobook and would basically let his smooth voice lull me to sleep. 😆
Nice, and yeah, definitely. Until my senior year English class, the only books were were allowed to use for any reading assignment were Shakespeare or Newberry award books.
Some people are hiding in this category as well. I don’t trust people who, when you ask their favorite book, tell you it’s hatchet, to kill a mockingbird, Atlas shrugged, etc etc. If it was a school read, chances are it’s one of like 5 books they ever actually read.
It’s possible to like one from that list or for one to be your favorite. I have a friend who says his favorite is great Gatsby.
It usually means we should ask more questions, because people who read who choose books from school are I think a minority. Most of those books are good for discussion and generally likeable but not “holy shit this it the book for me” kinds of books.
Is Hatchet the one where the kid survives a plane crash or the one where the kid just decides to go live in the woods with a falcon? I read both of those books at about the same time in my life and they kinda blended into one story in my head.
I have to keep reminding myself that there wasn’t a book about a kid who survived a plane crash and then learned to survive in a little house he made in a tree with a falcon he tamed. There’s the plane crash survival book, and the kid just decided to go live in the woods book, and the former contains a lot more lists of what he ate than you probably remember.
You could convince me that the high school curriculum is designed to take any interest in reading out of teenagers. K-8 tends toward stories that are intended for children to enjoy because that’s how child psychology works, but from the age of 14 on up it’s crusty old shit written in dead languages or in English so old no one remembers what the slang words mean, about shit no one cares about anymore.
Shakespeare is the classic example. Shakespeare was kind of the Joss Whedon of his day; he not only wrote in Ye Olde Englishe, but he wrote in slangy quippy word play-ey Ye Olde Englishe. Like, imagine high school students of the 2400s taking turns reading the script of Firefly out of a textbook, the kid who got assigned to read Mal’s lines tripping over stuff like “And I think you weren’t burdened with an overabundance of schooling.” 25th century school kids are going to write papers about 21st century attitudes to homosexuality due to the use of the word “sly” in one throwaway line in the episode set in a whorehouse. I really want to hear a 25th century English teacher tastefully describing who and what Saffron is. Then in their Junior year they’re going to do three random episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
That’s what studying Shakespeare is like in a modern high school. It would blow William Shakespeare’s mind that school children in nations that didn’t exist during his lifetime are taught what “Romeo and Rosemary begin with a letter” means.
I knew someone who hated reading in highschool but shortly after highschool discovered she liked reading for pleasure. She started with books like Twilight and The Hunger Games. I personally don’t recommend Twilight but I do recommend The Hunger Games.
Reading. Too many people say they hate reading because it’s boring or there is no point. Most cite the books they went over (probably never read) in school. They think everything is going to be like Romeo and Juliet or something. They don’t seem to realize that you study classics in school and that there are troves of modern books that they’d enjoy. I like to find out their favorite movies and get them an audio book in the same genre. It’s easier to get them to listen to one than to read one. I now have a handful of people who come to me asking what they should listen to or read next.
Seriously, this. I can’t stand to read “the classics” but I love reading things that interest me. Would be nice of schools recognized that and encouraged reading just for the sake of it rather than forcing kids to trudge through endless stanzas of “ye art incorrect and thou must protest this injustice. Oh Horatio!”. Let kids do book reports on Harry Potter (or whatever’s cool these days). At least they’re reading and their brain cells are firing.
Provided it’s got a decent narrator, audiobooks are like literal bedtime stories, and a lot of players have “sleep mode” that will either set a timer or stop it after the current chapter. Seems like an easy way to get people into them, IMO.
I have two of Stephen Fry’s autobiographies on audiobook and would basically let his smooth voice lull me to sleep. 😆
My daughter’s class (6th grade) is reading Hunger Games. I feel like that’s a great way to get kids into it.
Nice, and yeah, definitely. Until my senior year English class, the only books were were allowed to use for any reading assignment were Shakespeare or Newberry award books.
Some people are hiding in this category as well. I don’t trust people who, when you ask their favorite book, tell you it’s hatchet, to kill a mockingbird, Atlas shrugged, etc etc. If it was a school read, chances are it’s one of like 5 books they ever actually read.
I still love To Kill a Mockingbird, and I’ve read thousands of books since high school. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite but it’s up there.
It’s possible to like one from that list or for one to be your favorite. I have a friend who says his favorite is great Gatsby.
It usually means we should ask more questions, because people who read who choose books from school are I think a minority. Most of those books are good for discussion and generally likeable but not “holy shit this it the book for me” kinds of books.
Is Hatchet the one where the kid survives a plane crash or the one where the kid just decides to go live in the woods with a falcon? I read both of those books at about the same time in my life and they kinda blended into one story in my head.
I have to keep reminding myself that there wasn’t a book about a kid who survived a plane crash and then learned to survive in a little house he made in a tree with a falcon he tamed. There’s the plane crash survival book, and the kid just decided to go live in the woods book, and the former contains a lot more lists of what he ate than you probably remember.
Hatchet is the plane crash. The other is “my side of the mountain”.
Lots of gut cherry references in hatchet, and one instance of profanity as I recall.
You could convince me that the high school curriculum is designed to take any interest in reading out of teenagers. K-8 tends toward stories that are intended for children to enjoy because that’s how child psychology works, but from the age of 14 on up it’s crusty old shit written in dead languages or in English so old no one remembers what the slang words mean, about shit no one cares about anymore.
Shakespeare is the classic example. Shakespeare was kind of the Joss Whedon of his day; he not only wrote in Ye Olde Englishe, but he wrote in slangy quippy word play-ey Ye Olde Englishe. Like, imagine high school students of the 2400s taking turns reading the script of Firefly out of a textbook, the kid who got assigned to read Mal’s lines tripping over stuff like “And I think you weren’t burdened with an overabundance of schooling.” 25th century school kids are going to write papers about 21st century attitudes to homosexuality due to the use of the word “sly” in one throwaway line in the episode set in a whorehouse. I really want to hear a 25th century English teacher tastefully describing who and what Saffron is. Then in their Junior year they’re going to do three random episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
That’s what studying Shakespeare is like in a modern high school. It would blow William Shakespeare’s mind that school children in nations that didn’t exist during his lifetime are taught what “Romeo and Rosemary begin with a letter” means.
Why do we do it this way?
I was a voracious reader but there are so many time wasters now. Well and my eyes are not as good as they used to be making reading sorta a pain.
That’s amazing!
I knew someone who hated reading in highschool but shortly after highschool discovered she liked reading for pleasure. She started with books like Twilight and The Hunger Games. I personally don’t recommend Twilight but I do recommend The Hunger Games.