The main problem is teachers not adjusting the books to the personality of the student. I often wonder if many US high-school English teachers don't actually r

The main problem is teachers not adjusting the books to the personality of the student. I often wonder if many US high-school English teachers don't actually read anything outside of their curriculum literature. The glory of English literature is that it varies widely. Want a swashbuckle? Got it--here's "Ivanhoe". Want a soap opera? "Tom Jones". All manner of surreal? Roald Dahl. Incredibly dark humor? Late Mark Twain. Even when someone says "I don't like author <X>.", if someone explains what they don't like, you can often find a different story that they like just fine. By contrast, forcing "Pride and Prejudice" or "Wuthering Heights" onto a ninth grade teenager who digs surreal humor is just going to make them want to give up on reading completely.