8 days before - Required Reading

It occurred to me recently that a lot of the books on my favorites list are books that I HAD to read in school at some point. There are essentially two types of reading: reading for your own personal pleasure, and reading because someone told you to. I, along with most readers I imagine, am an advocate of the former kind of reading. In fact, I have frequently complained that required reading gets in the way of my pleasure reading.

So, how do you explain that so many of my "Favorite" books were required reading? Dear Mr. Henshaw. Number the Stars, The Giver, Fahrenheit 451 . . . these are books I had to read in school at some point, and you probably did to. And yet, I enjoyed them. Granted, I probably would have enjoyed them more had I read them for pleasure, but still I enjoyed them.

The reason for this is that in addition to being books that people think that kids should read . . . they are also enjoyable books to read. They have a lot to analyze and explore, but they are also fun to read. This is a balance that many authors don't find, and it's one of the criteria for my favorites list: is it possible to write a book that is both an enjoyable read AND good literature? Authors like J,K. Rowling, John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Rick Riordan can do that. Authors like Stephanie Meyer . . . not so much.

-Matt