What are you reading in 2025?

[Voadam]

Nothing beats the joy out of reading than being forced to do it in school/college.

This can vary.

I have enjoyed a number of books from class required readings and I joined a book club as an adult just to force myself to read non-work non-gaming stuff regularly.

From my book club I finally got to nominate and then read American Gods after having it on my to read list for years and liked it a lot.

From college I remember really enjoying reading Frankenstein in my freshman English class.

From High School I really liked Diary of a Madman, Crime and Punishment, Moby Dick, The Odyssey, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Macbeth.

From junior high The Most Dangerous Game and Animal Farm stand out in my memory.

If you are burnt out or don't want to read or don't like the material then being forced to read can be miserable, but I have found that reading interesting things as part of your required work can make the required work have enjoyable aspects and being required to read means that you do read.

 

[prabe]

I somehow never read Joyce or Dostoyevsky in college. Still haven't read any Joyce, but all the Dostoyevsky I've read has been on my own. Having to read on a deadline (alongside a bunch of other things you have to read on a deadline), then regurgitate the plot and themes, rarely helps people love a book.

Most of the books from the "literary canon" that I've enjoyed, I've read on my own. I agree that reading them for class/es rarely puts them in their best light.

 

[overgeeked]

If you are burnt out or don't want to read or don't like the material then being forced to read can be miserable

That's always been the crux for me. Being forced to do anything sucks. Especially something enjoyable like reading. I didn't appreciate any of the stuff I was forced to read in junior high or high school until years later, and then it was only a select few books and short stories. Most things I was "forced to read" in my electives in college were great because they were part of opt-in classes I chose to take. The reading for the required courses was a mixed bag. Some I loved, some I hated. I remember having to read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein something like six times over the course of two degrees. By the third time I was skimming it. By the sixth time I just told the prof the situation and handed them four papers on the book the next class. I got an email that I was excused from actually having to read it or write a paper but I still needed to attend class and engage with the discussions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In high school, I remember classmates losing their minds in fury that the bush across from the courthouse in the Scarlet Letter got a whole page to itself.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

In high school, I remember classmates losing their mind in fury that the bush across from the courthouse in the Scarlet Letter got a whole page to itself.

I love Moby Dick, but I appreciate that when you are faced with entire chapters such as the following, fury or despair may be warranted:

• The Whiteness of the Whale
• Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
• Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
• The Whale as a Dish
• The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
• The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
• The Tail

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I love Moby Dick, but I appreciate that when you are faced with entire chapters such as the following, fury or despair may be warranted:

• The Whiteness of the Whale
• Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
• Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
• The Whale as a Dish
• The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
• The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
• The Tail

This kind of stuff also makes up a big part of Don Quixote, which I'm still soldiering through.

You thought we resolved the question of whether writing or being a soldier is a more noble profession 100 pages ago? Ho ho, we're revisiting the issue again! Also, why all authors that Cervantes seems to think are crap truly suck, in detail.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I somehow never read Joyce or Dostoyevsky in college

One advantage of an English education is I didn’t have to study English after the age of 16, so pretty much all fiction I read after that was for pleasure.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If you are burnt out or don't want to read or don't like the material then being forced to read can be miserable, but I have found that reading interesting things as part of your required work can make the required work have enjoyable aspects and being required to read means that you do read.

Looking at the amount of reading I was assigned in college, it was more than even I could keep up with on a weekly basis (and I was and am a fast, voracious reader). That's a sure recipe for ending up burnt out.

Most of the books from the "literary canon" that I've enjoyed, I've read on my own. I agree that reading them for class/es rarely puts them in their best light.

I think the teacher can make a lot of difference. When I think about the books I read for class that stuck with me, they're from the classes where the teachers felt real passion and enthusiasm for them. If you're just churning through the classics just to tick boxes off, that's going to leave students cold.

One advantage of an English education is I didn’t have to study English after the age of 16, so pretty much all fiction I read after that was for pleasure.

Works of philosophy are also something I've come to appreciate more now that I read them for my own pleasure.

I think a lot about how courses should rethink how they approach teaching literature. Yes, you want to introduce people to a variety of classic works. But you also want to encourage them to continue reading after finishing your education. And a relentless churn doesn't do that. Would it be better to have a course on, say Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Kerouac's On The Road than a course on the Beats in total?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think a lot about how courses should rethink how they approach teaching literature. Yes, you want to introduce people to a variety of classic works. But you also want to encourage them to continue reading after finishing your education

Enjoyment of reading needs to be instilled at a young age, before any formal study of literature. Otherwise it will always be a chore.

 

[Alzrius]

Enjoyment of reading needs to be instilled at a young age, before any formal study of literature. Otherwise it will always be a chore.

I got into a debate with someone a while back with someone who said that school libraries should only have academic works, and not contemporary popular fiction (including graphic novels, manga, etc.). My counterpoint was exactly what you said here: that schools should have things which make reading fun for kids, rather than seeming like work.

Eventually the debate shifted to "well, why can't they just go to public libraries for the fun stuff?" which went down an entirely different avenue regarding accessibility, parental oversight, and several other issues.