Mandatory reading in school has made it impossible for me to enjoy classic literature as an adult

Remote-Ranger-7304 · 2022-02-21T03:43:50+00:00

I read like a maniac before I went to college. Then I went to college (later in life than many other people) and I had to read many articles and books that were for my degree.

I don't think I read a single novel in the time I was at college.

I left college and did a Masters degree which meant more reading of texts for the coursework. And no novel reading...

After I left college, I started to read novels again but it was a gradual process. Took me a little while but I soon got back into it.

RufusTheDeer · 2022-02-21T02:03:23+00:00

It took me three years after I got my English degree to read for fun again. And now, almost 8 years ago for me to legitimately get excited to read during my free time.

Long story short: give it time

action_lawyer_comics · 2022-02-21T02:47:44+00:00

Let me ask you a simple question: are you still “forcing” yourself to read them? If you are still putting pressure on yourself to read them, of course it’s going to feel like a chore. There is nothing wrong with being an adult who only reads books that are less than a couple decades old.

If a book feels like a chore or an assignment, read something that doesn’t. There is a thousand times more value in reading something you enjoy and talking about it with people in your real life than there is in reading a book that decades of gatekeepers have decided is worth reading to be an “intellectual” if reading it makes you miserable just so you can say you’ve read it.

2022-02-21T01:45:14+00:00

Haha that’s funny. I avoided reading all these kinds of books during school and now I love to read them.

Don’t force it. Maybe you’ll find some you can come back to someday. Just read what you enjoy. There are an infinite number of options out there.

ss10t · 2022-02-21T15:45:52+00:00

Can’t wait to see this reposted on r/bookscirclejerk

Watayahotel · 2022-02-21T02:01:23+00:00

That’s a tough position to be in. As someone who’s studying literature in grad school, it’s hard to “turn my brain off” while reading or to try not to over analyze things. I remember being haunted by a younger professor of mine who said he hadn’t read fiction since he got his PhD for the reason you’d mentioned.

My best advice for you would be to ditch some of these books or even lists of classics. It’s not that you shouldn’t read them, but sometimes I feel that seeing something upheld as “a classic” or “masterpiece” can give us pressure to have to like them or make you feel like you’re wrong if you didn’t. Instead, read what you enjoy and simply have fun! I always tell people that it doesn’t matter what they’re reading, as long as they read and have fun then that’s all that matters. You pick up so many small things when you read any novel.

If you still find that you want to read some of these greats or classics, I’d ask someone who knows your preferences to name a few that might be up your alley. You may find that you hate social critiques like Austen or the Brontë’s but love commentary on War like that of Hemingway or Heller. I’ll stop rambling but as long as you’re reading stuff that you enjoy, you’re doing it right!:)

Pinco158 · 2022-02-21T01:53:59+00:00

Read a book from the 1960's don't jump straight into 1890 or 20s 30s books, work your way back. I read Dune and the magus by John Fowles, they were amazing.

snorlz · 2022-02-21T06:39:52+00:00

It's because you considered it work. And the old Soviet expression is "They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work."

But to be fair, institutional settings have a knack for taking the fun out of everything. Especially when rote learning and competitions are involved.

ssducf · 2022-02-21T05:11:29+00:00

I love reading and I typically read between a book a day and a book a week, and I did that all through highschool. (Some books might take me a month or more to read, but I'll read others at the same time and still end up with a book a week on average.)

Having said that, there's some books I was forced to read for classes, and I now hate those books and a few I've gone back and re-read as an adult and enjoyed them, but it is hard. Sometimes studying literature ruins it. Shakespeare wasn't written to be read as a homework assignment, it was meant to be theater entertainment.

That reminds me. I read a science fiction story where someone went back in time and grabbed Shakespeare and brought him forward and enrolled him in a Shakespeare literature course, and he flunked it. :-P I think the author was trying to say, authors don't always like the way their own books are used in classes.

Fake_Human_Being · 2022-02-21T11:00:35+00:00

Without wanting to sound harsh, that’s not the school’s fault, it’s your own fault.

Not everyone enjoys reading classic literature, and if you don’t enjoy reading those books, just don’t read them.

If you prefer contemporary fiction or light novels, go with it. People can get into this mindset where they feel they need to “win” reading by forcing themselves to read classic or complicated novels when you don’t need to and you should just read something you enjoy

fannylogan · 2022-02-21T04:25:14+00:00

You probably don't enjoy classic lit and you should just accept that and be happy. There's no obligation to read it. What would make you think you should?

iremovebrains · 2022-02-21T02:59:15+00:00

Pick a nonfiction you're interested in reading. Learn for the joy of learning. Then read something modern fiction you're interested in. Read for the love of reading. Then judge someone for enjoying Dan brown and you're back, baby.

cmgr33n3 · 2022-02-21T02:54:45+00:00

It passes. I had an active bias against the classics when I left high school. Would read anything except them. Then about a decade later I got over myself and started intentionally including them here and there. Literally teared up at the end of A Tale of Two Cities.

CptNonsense · 2022-02-21T17:50:00+00:00

This thread is a fiasco

NameInCrimson · 2022-02-21T03:07:30+00:00

No, that's weird.

No_Technician1257 · 2022-02-21T03:32:31+00:00

I really don't know what advice to give, because I don't really understand this type of problem since I never made a distinction between "classics" and "the rest of the books", for me they were all books and that's it. I think people should stop fucking with that stupid distinction and read the book and nothing else. I always see people on this subreddit talking about how they're afraid of reading classics, how they get stressed thinking about classics, how they're afraid of being dumb and not understanding "the metaphors" and "the allegories" and blah blah blah. It's a fucking book. It does not bite. Does nothing. It's like any damn book out there. I'll give you some advice that is going to be useful: read with a dictionary next to you, go and look for a word you don't understand, that way you will expand your vocabulary and it will be easier for you to understand complex texts. And read only what interests you and don't analyze shit if you don't want to. I'm a staunch fan of Moby Dick and I don't understand anything that people see in this book, what if Noah's ark, what if allegories, wtf, where do people see that shit? Just enjoy the book your way. Sorry for the mistakes. Just be happy and read what you want.

I do not speak English.

Se7enLC · 2022-02-21T05:04:24+00:00

Everything is mandatory in school.

thefatherlord3 · 2022-02-21T02:02:30+00:00

I feel like you just never liked reading to begin with...I love reading even though I read a TON in high school and college and had plenty of assignments. Now I get to read with no assignments so it's even more enjoyable.

2022-02-21T02:51:59+00:00

You’ll find your way to them in your own time. Don’t pressure yourself into trying to enjoy something you currently don’t, just go where the mood takes you.

For me, it wasn’t a sudden overnight thing where something just clicked and I started devouring books. It was a gradual process over the course of years where I slowly chipped away at my list whenever I felt inspired.

thwgrandpigeon · 2022-02-21T06:02:16+00:00

Enjoy the fruits of your labour.

If you were forced to read romantic or victorian lit, and you love fantasy lit, read johnathan strange and mr norrell.

Or if you had to read Paradise Lost and also love fantasy lit, read the Silmarillian and enjoy the feel of it feeling like pulp lit.

And also, catch some great stagings of hamlet amd macbeth if you studied them, since you'll remember most of the plot and can just be blown away by the humanity of both pieces.

2022-02-21T06:27:13+00:00

I had the entire opposite reaction.

Shashara · 2022-02-21T03:13:19+00:00

[deleted]

rookwoodo · 2022-02-21T01:58:53+00:00

I was on the same boat, but then I read a fiction book about how schools banned some prolific books and I enjoyed the book so I decided fuck it I'll read these prolific books which were just shit like catcher in the rye, farenheit 451, animal farm and shit.

It took a mediocre YA fiction book that I forgot the name of to convince me to read the classics.

paullannon1967 · 2022-02-21T15:23:29+00:00

I absolutely hate this idea. It is not impossible to enjoy reading as an adult, and it certainly isn't anything to do with "mandatory reading in high school". The idea that you characterise the reading you did in highschool so negatively is perhaps an indication of your current reluctance. High school is where you learned how to read. How it is that learning something in the first place would ruin your future enjoyment of it is just silly and doesn't make any sense.

It's perhaps more likely that the kinds of things you read in school don't interest you any more (people do change as they grow), or you're too busy and too tired to engage your mind after a busy work week (this is the main factor in the slower pace of my reading lately).

Why don't you try a few shorter and less demanding titles to ease you back in? I always try to read something funny and easy going in between longer and more demanding reads.

You absolutely can get back into reading, you're just seeing it as a chore rather than something you actually want to do. If you don't want to, that's fine, but rather than blaming the thing that taught you how to read, just keep trying. If you're not enjoying "classics" think about reading something else. It's not a failure to put down a book you aren't enjoying!

Solitary-Dolphin · 2022-02-21T11:44:49+00:00

With all due respect, stop whining and get over it.

MrRabbit7 · 2022-02-21T09:12:40+00:00

Look, it’s the daily anti-intellectual and anti-literature post.

iamamuttonhead · 2022-02-21T02:02:49+00:00

It goes away. Just takes time.

mandoa_sky · 2022-02-21T03:46:03+00:00

funnily enough, after my degree, it's been next to impossible for me to not turn off my "make notes while reading" side.

Bodorocea · 2022-02-21T05:17:55+00:00

Many things that were mandatory while growing up have left me unable to enjoy them later in life. Luckily, sometimes life gave me the chance to reconsider my position towards some of them.

One example :

When i was arround 9 - 12 yo, during the summers we would visit one of my grandma's sisters, in the countryside. They had a good business there, selling flowers and watermelons. Of course, the watermelons were the main attraction. But.. The thing was they never let me eat watermelon as much as i wanted, because they said "it has no nutrients, it's mostly just water" so for that reason i had to eat tomatoes. So much so that i started to hate tomatoes. I couldn't eat tomatoes for years. They made me sick. The smell, the seeds, the skin. Until one day ,some years later after a long and wonderful summer day of playing basketball with a friend, i stopped by his house on my way back to mine. His mother had prepared some sandwiches. Offered me one. I was hungry as a wolf. But the sandwich? Cheese and tomatoes. I thought, shit.. But the hunger said : we are eating that, fuck off with your opinions about tomatoes. And i took a bite and it was the best thing i tasted in years. Like the hunger had rewired my brain. I went straight home, and had to see if it really cured me, i took a tomato and some cheese, and to my surprise, i liked it again. To this day it is one of my favorite foods in the summer, cheese and tomatoes.

I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes the need for something will help you get closer to that which you previously despised, of had formed an injust or hasty opinion on. And give it time.

Peace!

disdkatster · 2022-02-21T01:55:41+00:00

For books that are in a form of language that is different from what you typically read, I find reading out loud to myself makes a difference. It slows me down and forces me to engage in what I am reading. Try putting a beat to anything that is poetic.

vandalia · 2022-02-21T03:27:18+00:00

Since I fulfilled those requirements with Cliff’s Notes I find it fun nowadays to fill in the details.

2022-02-21T05:02:48+00:00

If I might suggest, start very basic by reading a few short graphic novels that really rivet your attention--or comics if you like those. Strong attraction to reading something, strong curiosity and a feeling of pleasure as you read--those should guide you. Don't "try" to read anything, esp. "great lit." Read ONLY what you love and never stop. Eventually you'll 'rehabilitate' your ability to enjoy reading.

MadAL96 · 2022-02-21T09:19:16+00:00

The burn out is very real, my best advice would be to not "force" yourself to read as this will just end up feeling like a chore. Accept the fact you're going through a burn out and only read when you're 100% in the mood, try starting with smaller/easier books too to ease back into it. You'll pick it back up eventually!

927zander · 2022-02-21T03:06:49+00:00

grow up

mcshaggy · 2022-02-21T13:21:51+00:00

You sound like the people who complain that leftists made them Nazis.

orangeandblue06 · 2022-02-21T02:20:30+00:00

English teacher here.

I understand how you feel, and I’m sorry that it’s gotten to that point for you. The goal of any English teacher is to make what you’re reading pleasurable - or, as I say to my kids, even if you don’t enjoy it, per se, you can still understand its importance in the world.

Classic literature is tough for me, too. I’m currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo and it’s a slog. But there are moments that intrigue me and keep me going.

What I always say is, find the book, the chapter, hell even a sentence that you love. Sometimes we think appreciation only has to be the macro, when the joy of literature is often the micro.

Patience is key - in the meantime, if classic lit isn’t your bag right now, then read what you love! Any reading is good reading. A classic will show up when the time is right and make you fall in love again.

YouMadeMeGetThisAcco · 2022-02-21T02:03:28+00:00

I didnt even need to write too much about them, I think most our book reports were like one page or so. We just mostly had to read a ton of classics just to have read them. I was an avid reader so the reading itself was a total breeze, but since we were forced to read classics before I was old enough to appreciate them properly, I have an irrational hatred for most classic litterature still to this day. So I sort of have the issue but I have no idea to fix it, I'm still the same ~20 years later haha. Good luck though!

sanantoniosaucier · 2022-02-21T15:38:47+00:00

I totally know what you mean. I blame everyone else for my lack of motivation when it just me deciding to not do something. It's such a relief that I've got an easy excuse for anything that might be good for me to do but I really don't want to in the moment. Exercise? Yeah, it'd be good, but it's the fault of my little league coach that I don't like it. Cleaning my house? I might like it, but since my parents made me clean my room as a child, I just can't bring myself to clean. Eating vegetables? I'd like to try, but it's my mother's fault that I can't.

I wish I could just be an adult and take responsibility for myself, but since everyone always told me to grow up, I just can't bring myself to be a functioning adult. It's everyone else's fault and I've got no way whatsoever to make any choices.

testfire10 · 2022-02-21T02:22:36+00:00

Try again later. I had a similar problem and 15 years later, I’m just now revisiting the classics.

MrAmishJoe · 2022-02-21T08:43:16+00:00

It wasn't until after my 30s that I was able to go back and read the classics from childhood and actually enjoy them. Luckily it never took my overall love of reading....but I'll be damned if I could ever enjoy a book if I was doing it for research/quiz purposes...but I guess it has helped me enjoy reading overall....understanding writing, styles, structure...whatever... has helped me enjoy the difference between good and mediocre wriring. And I'm in no way saying 'mediocre' writing can't be super enjoyable... But some people can tell a good story...but...but some people can make love to paper with a pen. And I think the BS they made us do helped me understand the difference in some way...or atleast helped me learn to figure out those things on my own.

But my stupid insignificant rant aside...i hope you find your love of reading. I've regretted a lot in life...but the only thing I've ever regretted about a good book is that it ended.

YoungAnachronism · 2022-02-21T10:57:33+00:00

I don't know... did you ever truly LIKE specifically classic literature?

I am not a big classic literature guy myself, because even being exposed to it during my regular schooling was a hassle and a turn off. That said, one of my favourite books was, and remains the Sherlock Holmes book I have, which contains all the stories for that character that were penned by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Although you could argue that they aren't written the same was a novel might be, I still love the language used, the artful way in which characters are depicted, the luscious way that Holmes speaks...

Just read something that isn't necessarily classical. You aren't required to read classic literature, or enjoy it. But you should absolutely read fiction. Try sci-fi! Try thrillers! Get in the gutter with the rest of us muggles lol!

discodiscgod · 2022-02-21T12:11:01+00:00

You don’t HAVE to read classical literature. Read whatever the heck you want. I primarily read non-fiction (business books, biographies, history). I’ve never had any desire to read the classics, so I don’t.

LeoMarius · 2022-02-21T12:39:07+00:00

I got a history degree. I was reading so much for school that I stopped reading for fun. It takes a while to rediscover pleasure reading. The last thing you want to do to relax is what you do all day for work.

argella1300 · 2022-02-21T14:13:53+00:00

Reminds me of how I ended up reading 1984 on my own in my senior year of high school while on an exchange trip in Shanghai. The crazier thing is, I picked up that copy of 1984 in the equivalent of a Borders in a mall in downtown Shanghai.

jolhar · 2022-02-21T17:26:21+00:00

No. School introduced me to literature. It’s where I learnt to love it.

gabrielemenopee · 2022-02-21T19:42:58+00:00

Stop and listen to yourself.

If school ruined classics for you then you probably just don't like to read classical lit that much. Everyone had to read books we didn't love in school and even more in college. That isn't going to ruin your ability to enjoy a book.

There's no rule that says you have to love classical literature. If it feels like work to read it then you probably just don't like it and you should read other things.

2022-02-21T20:04:31+00:00

Sometimes, it is work to read classics and that's part of what makes them more enjoyable. That is one of the most important things I learned in all my English classes doing all those papers and homework assignments; you get out what you put in.

di0ny5us · 2022-02-21T07:18:22+00:00

Suck it up and read what you like and want to read then. Revisit the classics with something cool like the Victorian horror classics… or whatever interests you. Try Frankenstein and Dracula. If you put a book down part way - there’s no shame in that. I did it after a classics streak with Heart of Darkness (was unreadable for me).

redhighways · 2022-02-21T04:39:08+00:00

I’m the opposite. I really enjoy a book more when I begin to see the grace behind the writing, the way the author has effortlessly woven meanings behind actions, sometimes in complex layers.

For me, the story is one part of the fun, but the art of it isn’t painful, it’s beautiful.

Ampersandbox · 2022-02-21T05:08:44+00:00

I understand this feeling. I've had similar reactions to being compelled by others.
You need to understand the reaction you're feeling is one that you've chosen. You can insist that it was imposed on you, but that makes you a victim. You're the only person with the power to turn your reaction on its head, and make gains on being able to enjoy classic literature again.

_Balrog_of_Morgoth_ · 2022-02-21T13:52:55+00:00

Mandatory reading in school helped me appreciate classic literature. Everyone has a different experience.

Aprilprinces · 2022-02-21T15:37:59+00:00

I am not buying this at all

Mostly because I ONLY read classics BECAUSE they made me to, my choice would always be something easier

You just don't like it

librarianne209 · 2022-02-21T03:41:07+00:00

Indeed, I most definitely went through what you are going through. I diverged and enjoyed the many other types of books that are out there to enjoy. Explore some different types of fiction -- enjoy popular fiction, mystery fiction, historic fiction, non-fiction, non-fiction that reads like fiction -- so many beauties out there!

Slacker5001 · 2022-02-21T08:43:03+00:00

For me it was actually mandatory reading in college that brought back some of my love for reading. Specifically because I had a really amazing professor.

He did themed courses where we read a variety of things and even analyzed movies too. I could read the book for class. Then in the lecture he'd go over an analysis of the parts we read. He taught me to see themes in the book. And also taught me that there wasn't a "right way" to read and analyze a book. He brought life to books I would have otherwise never even read. And showed me that even books I didn't like could have interesting themes and ideas.

It was high school that killed it for me. Mainly because I had to read things I had absolutely no interest in. And then was never really taught what to do with the information I read. I read it because I had to. Then made some final product at the end because I had to. No one ever brought life into what I read back then.

2022-02-21T13:50:04+00:00

Sorry never had this problem! I just love reading so much. I'd say, give it time, and focus on reading what YOU want to read. Maybe say to yourself, ha, I'm going to read THIS book, even though my classes never assigned it, I'm reading what I want to read, to hell w/ what my teachers wanted me to read, or said I SHOULD read. Make it an indulgence, a little rebellion, maybe then you can associate it w your own pleasure rather than duty.

VivaZane · 2022-02-21T16:53:13+00:00

Working in the biology field and having to read 1000s of papers. I have lost my will to read for fun. :'(

2022-02-21T17:06:31+00:00

I can relate. School can totally ruin pleasure reading. Give it time. A years from now you will likely be over it.

Bermakan · 2022-02-21T17:09:55+00:00

Some for me with latin authors (went to school in Chile).

kindanormle · 2022-02-21T18:56:12+00:00

I'm just going to throw it out there that classical writing styles are quite different from modern styles, and it's just not easy to read them period. Schools forcing you to read them are really the only way to get modern readers introduced to them. I've found that it's a lot easier to read a modern adaptation of the original. The difficulty is in finding a modern adaptation that stays true to the original intent.

catsareweirdroomates · 2022-02-21T20:01:48+00:00

Hey, read what you love! The books on the classics lists are good but they are not the only good books out there. Not to mention the preponderance of old/dead white men. The best books are the ones that bring you joy. Beyond that don’t worry about it.

If you want to have an idea of what a specific book is about so you can understand pop culture references or conversations with those who have read them, the wikis and spark notes summaries are a great resource.

I used to want to be Rory Gilmore with her enormous list of classic lit so bad but it turns out you can’t just borrow an identity from other people. When I finally settled into myself, it turns out there are a few of those books that I like but I’m really into speculative fiction and I have different ambitions than some fictional girl.

TLDR: read what makes you happy. Life’s too short for anything less

2022-02-23T14:14:34+00:00

I think at the time I was forced to read classic literature in school, I wasn't mature enough to appreciate it (I pretty much wasn't interested in anything that didn't have swords or lasers), and that caused me to experience a kind of backlash against not just classic literature, but pretty much all of non-SFF literature which lasted well into adulthood, and so I read nothing but SFF until my 30s.

For some reason, a lot of my hatred of classics was focused on To Kill A Mockingbird, even though I hadn't actually read much of it and couldn't remember a thing about it. I just resented being forced to read it when I didn't want to. Then, when I was 37 and getting pretty fed up with badly written generic fantasy novels, I picked up tKaM on a whim, and was surprised to find I enjoyed it far more than any fantasy book I'd read in the previous decade.

I think it was just time and maturity that I needed, but I still resent school for forcing me to study books when I wasn't ready for them. I'm now 40 and catching up on what feels like a lifetime of reading.

IndigenousBastard · 2022-02-21T03:39:15+00:00

Tbf, there’s a massive amount of classic literature, or even books on the top 100 list that are absolute garbage. Who really thinks Atlas Shrugged is one of the best books ever made?

wjbc · 2022-02-21T02:15:00+00:00

I recommend reading genre classics that are more fun than literary. Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monty Cristo and The Three Musketeers, Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series -- don't pick classics because would be taught in school, but classics that sound fun to you.

ihbarddx · 2022-02-21T04:44:04+00:00

I was lousy in English class, and frequently didn't read (the entirety of) the books I was assigned. Happy to report that I had the very opposite reaction as a result. Got on a kick where I read all the books I had been supposed to read. Had a great time with _Ivanhoe_ and _Moby Dick_. _The Scarlet Letter_, however, was a lot worse than I had remembered it!

swissiws · 2022-02-21T11:46:41+00:00

Today students'vocabulary is shit because we've stopped enforcing classics reading

F4il3d · 2022-02-21T15:38:17+00:00

Either you want to read or you don't. Most everyone out there reading on a regular basis was subjected to the mandatory requirement and rigors of schoolwork. Similarly Mathematics. Some enjoy math and some do not, but that affinity grows out of curiosity. Excuses are like grapes, they come in bunches. If one does not suffice there will be another. It is the rigor of pushing out the whole bunch and trying things out, regardless of the comfort that putting the task aside may bring, that rewards you with the indescribable joy of discovery.

44035 · 2022-02-21T03:30:12+00:00

So stop reading classics and start reading current fiction and/or genre fiction.

2022-02-21T16:50:51+00:00

Ah this post again. Hadn't seen it in a few days, I was starting to worry about you, /r/books

enidkeaner · 2022-02-21T17:18:33+00:00

I kind of don't get this point of view.

I don't understand - genuinely - how love of reading can be ruined by any external factors. You decide how you feel about something.

I'm working on a Master's in English right now. English has always been my favorite subject, but it's truly a hell of a lot of reading and writing. I still read for pleasure. I have never not read for pleasure. I read for pleasure in high school and in undergrad while also reading the assigned texts - I think in my entire academic career, there were about 3 books I actually hated. "Things Fall Apart", "Their Eyes Were Watching God", and "The Mayor of Casterbridge". All classics I read in high school; hated them all and yet, the didn't affect how I feel about classics as a whole.

I like the classics; I genuinely enjoy them, mostly. I don't see the classics as work even though they're what I have to read and have had to read for school; I just...don't associate them with work. I see them as books that possibly have deeply interesting insides that someone decided to use as a tool for teaching. So, they've never been work. I think your issue is that you've decided to see them as work rather than just as a book that exists out in the world.

I still read while doing an insane amount of literature based academic work because I don't allow the insane amount of literature based amount of academic work affect how I feel about reading as a whole. And I still read a lot of classics. It's always been fun for me, it's always gonna be fun for me - that's just how I see it. And the assigned texts I read that I didn't care for? I didn't dwell on how they made me feel. I just read 'em, took what I needed to know from them, used them as I needed to, and kept it moving.

Reading has been my hobby since I was like 3. I will be damned if I allow anything or anyone to take one of the things I enjoy the most about this world from me.

For you, specifically? Maybe it would be best, if you really want to continue to read the classics, to seek out lesser known classics - might be easier for you to convince yourself it's not work if it's an author you've never heard of or haven't heard much about? Or mix in the classics with other contemporary reading - it's not like you have to be all classics, all the time?

Also - ask yourself why you want to read the classics anyway? Like...who or what is making you do this other than the arbitrary boundary you're putting on yourself. You're not gonna die because you didn't hit up Dickens one last time. Are you genuinely, deeply interested in classic literature or are you reading it because you feel like you should or that you have to? Because if it's the latter, put it aside and don't worry about it for now and come back later if you feel the urge to read them because you want to. Like I said, I love the classics and I really do believe many of them deserve to be taught but I think most readers could probably benefit from reading at least some. But you don't benefit from them if you're not actually open to them and you're just reading them because you see it as chore that needs to be done.

2022-02-21T22:53:35+00:00

[deleted]

CapablePerformance · 2022-02-21T04:07:14+00:00

Had this feeling after middle and high school; the connection between reading and "what was the breakfast that the main character ate?" and "Analyze the connection between the main characters actions in chapter 4 and chapter 6" questionares destroyed any enjoyment I had in reading. It felt like I couldn't just relax and get lost in a book, I had to read into every small detail from a scholastic standpoint.

What worked for me was to read some easy books. It might be childish but I went back and read some goosebumps books and some YA novels that're pretty basic reading, nothing too challenging. Then just moved up.

Djcool2002 · 2022-02-21T03:43:02+00:00

I always thought I hated classical lit and I always had trouble reading books in school, until I read the three musketeers and loved it.

Pdxthorns17 · 2022-02-21T06:38:44+00:00

I sounds alot like burnout. Art kids get this after finishing art majors and eventually the passion of creativity comes back.

mothermucca · 2022-02-21T05:12:48+00:00

I get it. was in my 30’s before I could read books at all, and about 45 before I read anything that would be considered classic literature.

Now I usually have 2-3 books going at a time, and at least one of them is a classic. I appreciate that I can slow down, take my time, and enjoy them now, without having to get bogged down in note taking.

My advice would be to spend time figuring out what you like to read now, and read that. You may get back into classics again,or you may decide you’ve done enough of that for one lifetime. Either way, it’s fine.

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