Poll: When did reading become so horrible?

[Argtee]

Reading never became horrible.

There are just a lot of people that don't want to take the time to read a book.
Like the OP said, a lot of people get upset when they get a reading assingment, but they probably wouldn't get upset if they got an assingment to watch the movie of a book.

Books have way more detail than movies do. They are also longer than movies. A lot of kids don't want to have to use up their time to read a book.

I do really like reading. I'm currently reading the third book in the "Wheel of Time" series and I'm sure if some kid got an assingment to read the first book in the "Wheel of Time" series, they'd groan because they think that it would take up too much of their time, but it doesn't take that long to read 702 pages.

 

[UnkeptBiscuit]

I generally enjoy reading, but the kind of books I had to read at school certainly made it feel like torture.

Pride and Prejudice. Eurgh.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is much better. I actually get to read that for school (grins widely).

OT: I read, and I enjoy it. It helps that my English teacher this year has actually assigned us good books like Of Mice and Men, The Hunger Games, Night, and Speak. The only thing is that he's been giving us so many books to read that I haven't had time to read The Road, which I actually want to read.

 

[cheese_wizington]

I enjoy reading.

I like movies better though. (Typical unintelligible answer...)

TRANSFROMERZ 2 WUS BEST MUVVEH OF ALL TIMEZ!

 

[Commissar Sae]

Are you kidding me? 66% "I love to read" my ass. I bet most the people who said that are a bunch of phonies who read a page every blue moon.

Actually, I've read four books in the last 6-or-so weeks. So neuh! =P

I started reading George RR Martins 'Song of Ice and Fire' about 6 weeks ago, I'm only on book 4, but thats mostly because I either read on breaks at work, before going to bed or in transit to places. That and the books average about 1000+ pages...

 

[Wordslinger]

I liked "The Grapes of Wrath" just fine, but "Of Mice and Men" was so unremittingly depressing it put me off Steinbeck for years. One of my friends eventually bullied me into reading "Cannery Row" and I got over it, but jeez.

Perhaps I am blinded by having had to write a long synopsis on every chapter. Some of which are mind-numbingly short, such that the synopsis is of comparable length to the chapter.

I blame Stephanie Meyer.

You think twilight is stupid, and I think thats adorable, but Stephanie Meyer has done more for increasing readership in young adults than you ever will.

I somewhat agree with this... though people reading Twilight tend to ONLY read Twilight, over and over and over again. I've tried recommending books to people I see reading Stephanie Mayer (mostly the Discworld series, because I have a massive hardon for it), and all I get is blank looks. Anything that doesn't involve bad plots and/or sparkling vampires, they simply aren't interested in.

 

[Centrophy]

I just can't find a comfortable position to read a book. No matter how I try, no matter which pose or which piece of furniture I'm in, I always get a crick in my neck, or my spine, or other places. That being said I read news articles and forums constantly. So it's a toss-up. On balance I'm just going to vote that I hate reading.

 

[Chaos-Spider]

I love reading, but I don't like being told what to read. I don't enjoy reading MacBeth, seeing as it's a play and is meant to be preformed, so I hate being forced to read it at home.

I love reading and have for years, but Macbeth is just confusing even when its performed. I only really understood what was going on in that play when I saw MacHomer, A version performed by one actor with the basic idea being the play Macbeth as performed by the Simpsons.

I still think King Lear is the better Shakespearean tragedy though.

 

[londelen]

To enjoy reading one has to desire the improvement of themselves, and most people just don't have that ambition.

 

[quack35]

I think we complain just to complain. We teenagers are like that.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

To enjoy reading one has to desire the improvement of themselves, and most people just don't have that ambition.

This is a joke?

It's hard to appreciate forms of entertainment when they are forced on you. They are much better received when they are satisfying a craving.

 

[Kryzantine]

I read occasionally, but the book would need to have a well written story and a coherent plot to it. For instance, I did not like The Scarlet Letter because the story was stretched so thin and there was no point to reading it past a certain point, other than reading about a woman bitching about how she's been branded by the classic Puritan society. That's boring. The opposite is achieved with books like Intruder in the Dust, which is actually even more difficult to read, but is at least coherent enough to get its multiple messages concerning race relations across, and there are constant progressions in plot that keep the reader entertained despite being thicker than a prison wall.

While I usually find a way to keep myself entertained with assigned reading (I consider the third act of Our Town to be the pinnacle of American play, even though the rest of the play was alright), a lot of people do not share my sympathies. Americans are feeling more and more everyday that reading just takes too long.

 

[Z(ombie)fan]

What pissed me off in school was how the teachers always picked the most dumb, slow readers who used to stumble and tumble over every word like their tongues were drunk.

I would just read ahead myself and then daydream while I waited for them to catch up.

yea...

the annoying thing for me is I would be rediculously ahead of everyone then when they called on my I would about several pages past them.

 

[Wordslinger]

I like reading a lot, however the books I had to read for school were generally not interesting. I love fantasy and detective books, but we always had to read boring (dutch atleast, english atleast had a few interesting ones) literature.

U ever read Skullduggery Pleasant?

I enjoyed that book. However, the sequel was... well, bad.

 

[ender214]

Most other forms of media seem more engaging and entertaining to me, so reading generally isn't something I do for leisure anymore.

 

[londelen]

To enjoy reading one has to desire the improvement of themselves, and most people just don't have that ambition.

This is a joke?

It's hard to appreciate forms of entertainment when they are forced on you. They are much better received when they are satisfying a craving.

This is not at all a joke, reading improves you, and most people just aren't willing to improve themselves if it means a little work. Reading is entertainment that makes you better, but requires some effort. People not wanting to read because it is forced on them is merely an excuse not to work, like people using the excuse of holidays to get hammered.

 

[cornmancer]

I don't know when reading became such an awful thing for everyone, but I think it's when we as a society drove to the corner of "Instant Gratification Street" and "Stupid Avenue"

That being said, when you have to read dull books like what my class is reading, "The House of the Scorpion", the groans are understandable. Not totally warranted, but understandable.

 

[Uncompetative]

I got a D in English Literature because I didn't read "To Kill a Mockingbird".

I still don't regret that decision.

 

[link141]

As long as it's something that I'll like,I love reading.

 

[Hollock]

It doesn't really suck.
But I just had to read the awakening which was very shitty. But now I'm reading a much better book - great gatsby, so it's okay. it's all a matter of the book