Nothing kills enjoyment of reading like being forced to read a 500 page tome written in archaic english. If you want to make someone hate reading, make them plow through The Mill On The Floss. 

Thank god there were a bunch of decent books on the recommended reading list so I never had to read bullshit like Ethan Frome.

I’ve felt for a long time that nothing kills reading quicker than English class. The stuff we are forced to read is alienating and what we’re expected to gather from the material (i.e. what we were tested on) is usually such inane minutia it makes it downright impossible to develop any sort of love of reading.  I’m an…

The third was assigned reading for school. And not like reading for BOOK IT! or choosing books off a summer reading list, but “here is a list of books you have to read for the year, now read them”. Nothing turned me off quite like being forced to slog through books I didn’t want to read. If the time I had available…

I can’t pinpoint when my reading for fun slowed, but it was somewhere around this age. There were a few factors that really led to that, one of which is explicitly mentioned here—organized sports and running around outside with my idiot friends became far more important to me. That meant that once I got out of school,…

Its rather amazing that our educational system still focuses so much on solitary learning. When in most workplaces you work in teams, cooperation and teamwork is key.