More importantly, if you force them to read boring, badly written books for more than a decade, crushing any enjoyment out of the experience of reading, they ar

More importantly, if you force them to read boring, badly written books for more than a decade, crushing any enjoyment out of the experience of reading, they aren't going to take much interest in reading afterwards. JK Rowling, and gulp Stephenie Meyer, have probably done more for western literacy single-handedly than millions of elementary English teachers accomplished. My folks were more in the Tom Clancy, Louis L'Amour and Stephen King era of pulps, but without those lifelines of more engaging content during the wasteland years of dreck that was pushed 3rd-10th grade...