Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book.

[ardvari]

The person who would become a lifelong reader should stumble upon very rich stuff first, early, and often. It lived within, a most agreeable kind of haunting.- Gregory Maguire, "Lost

Comments

[chaosvizier]

I agree with this post 100%. I think I was the same way when I was younger, reading before school, and reading large crazy things at a young age.

I'd also add that reading helps with language learning. When I lived in Germany for a year, half of my language skills came from being in a German school, and the other half came from reading "Asterix" and "Tintin" and similar comics and books.

And it would be nice if schools offered more "fun" things to read. Yes, the classics are good and all, but they're also dreadfully boring for the most part. Mix it up! Bring in some fun stuff! Anything!

[ardvari]

I love Asterix! Never got into Tintin, but I pretty much grew up on Asterix & Obelix. :)

I agree with you, I think schools need to offer better books. Of course the classics need to be read. They're important, but reading one after the other in an attempt to cram them into people's heads just doesn't work. I LOVED to read and I probably only did read half of the ones I was supposed to read in high school, and read the Cole's Notes for the rest. I can imagine some of the people less inclined to read books probably managed to finish high school without having read a single one, whereas they might have read something more fun.

And, really, I think The Great Gatsby isn't horrible but it just comes up so very, very short when compared to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And I believe The Hitchhiker's Guide to be much more relevant to the interests of pubescent teens.

I think in school teachers should try to read books that the kids will enjoy. Give me, say, The Bell Jar and something else fun, and I'll be much less annoyed (and

[chaosvizier]

Oh, Great Gatsby, you were my greatest failure. It was the one book where even the Cliff Notes were too boring to read. Somehow I still got a B on the test. Maybe it was my greatest triumph instead. ;-)

Our one literature teacher at least mixed it up a bit. Sure, we suffered through Moby Dick and Great Expectations, but we also got The Hobbit, The Odyssey, and some of the less crappy Shakespeares. (Hamlet >>>>> King Lear, and anyone who disagrees is a doodyhead.) But Death of a Salesman? The Scarlet Letter? SNOOOOOOOZZZZZZEEEEEEEE

[ardvari]

I wish we'd gotten The Odyssey. We did get King Lear (twice, in my case, because I read it in Canada AND in Germany), and it was atrocious. I liked Hamlet though. And Macbeth, too.

And, talking about Death of a Salesman, I adored The Crucible. Still one of my favorites, that one.