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Comment by Out_of_Characte | Hacker News Reader

>but to suggest that people read her just because they’re required to is absurd

Its not, source: the OP

Your comment made me realise how much I hated being required to read X because of all the exact reasons you mentioned above. Just because what I've read didn't win a nobel prize doesn't mean I cant find it subjectively better.

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When I was a kid, to me no book was subjectively better than the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now "Legends") novels. I've never read anything from Toni Morrison but my life is richer for having been made to read outside the niche I chose for myself.

You can discount awards and the opinions of professionals but there is still value in being exposed to things you wouldn't have picked on your own during your formative years. Maybe most of it leaves you cold, but sometimes you find something you would not have picked that speaks to you. That's how I was introduced to my favorite author. You never know what will land a little differently than you would have expected. Sometimes the classics are classics for a reason.

Yeah, I used to be very adverse to such things, I still am, in part because I know just how impossible it is to read something you dont believe and get an understanding of the material at the same time. It requires suspension of disbelief. anyone can have an open mind sometimes, but no one can do that all the time. For some concrete examples I would implore you to read excerpts from 'Ageless Body, Timeless Mind' by deepak chopra. To put it mildly, I know I have my limits.

Required reading material is usually more mundane than some of the stuff out there. But that could also mean that it's not daring enough to require reading. So my philosophy is that you should support people in choosing their adversity, never mandating.

From what I can determine, the books that kids are forced to read in high school are the books that their elders really loved; and often were not forced to read in high school.

Most every book I was forced to read I still hate enough that I'll never bother rereading it. I'm sure they're all great; they also weren't for me, not at that time.

Which is why the absolute last thing I'd ever do is assign anyone to read any of the books I love.

I find that I generally love most of the books I was forced to read. Even if I didn’t at the time.

I make time to re-read Grapes of Wrath once every decade and I connect with it differently every time I do. Catcher in the Rye has also taken new meaning as I’ve aged to where I can imagine Holden as my troubled, disaffected teenage son.

I hated Romeo and Juliet as a teenager because everyone saw it as a beautiful romance and I thought I was so smart recognizing it as a cautionary tale of the impulsiveness of youth. But now I see it as a beautiful love story.

I’m grateful that I was forced to read these as a young teenager because now I can reflect on these works and my reaction to them as a reflection of my own life.

I find most kids are required to read very little. If it wasn’t for AP courses I probably would have skated through high school only having to read 5-8 books. That’s absurd. Kids should have to read a book at least every month.

Good thing you’re not an English teacher then.

A thing to consider about the goal of education: when done correctly, they’re not trying to make you love every you read (I will never appreciate reading Shakespeare) but ideally are just trying to expose you to a wide range of things to help you find what you might love.

I would have never read “The Things They Carried” independent of school but “How to tell a true war story” is one of the most important chapters of any book I’ve ever read in my life.

I’m in the same camp as another replier in that I’ve come to like - even adore - much of what I hated because it was required reading. If you feel like you’ve changed since high school then I encourage you to consider rereading some of what you hated because it just might take a new meaning for you.

On a broader point, it’s a shame there is such much focus on subjects like literature and history for children and young adults. As I get older I realize that it takes one’s own life experience in order to connect with these subjects. History without your own lived experience is just words on a page.

Another way to think of this: often/for-some, none of the above has anything to do with the qualities of the author - but a failing of the eductational system/style.

I remember being forced to read some books in high school. I hated them.

When I returned to them later in life, by choice, I absolutely loved them.

This is why I disregard the debate above.

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