One thing that might make it _slightly_ better, is that when I had read something for one of my language courses, they'd give us a list with a selection of book

One thing that might make it _slightly_ better, is that when I had read something for one of my language courses, they'd give us a list with a selection of books we could choose from. So at least, you kind of can read a bit about each book and then see which one you'd like best. Still, the selection had to fit in the school curriculum so it wasn't exactly free choice. And a few of them were mandatory for everyone. I'd say the experience still wasn't great, but perhaps was better than being forced to read book X. Intrinsic motivation to read does make the experience a whole lot more satisfying, and as others have noted before me, reading some of those books again now makes me appreciate them more. Just recently started reading some of Tolstoy's work and I can imagine that a decade ago (in high school) I wouldn't have been able to find motivation to read anything he wrote.