I had that experience with James Ellroy. Incredible writer but bleak and misanthropic world view. And I understand that McCarthy is several notches beyond that so I’m probably never gonna read that guy.

I did not know that Max and Mel were related!

I disliked the World War Z movie as well. With the popularity of the “mockumentary” format and true crime style documentaries, I would love to see someone take another run at this, as a limited series on a streamer. The hook of the book for me was that it was an oral history with people telling their moments of interaction with the big events, to preserve a historical record. It seems like a natural to do it like that, or maybe in the style of a Ken Burns documentary with talking head narration interspersed with “found footage” style sound and video recordings. Ring camera footage of zombies approaching houses, or lab security cameras, or audio transmissions with the astronaut stuck in space. Interviews with the doctors who treat the astronaut after he returns etc. Like my wish for a Disney+ MCU tv series following insurance claims adjusters in the wake of superhero shenanigans, I’m just gonna keep putting this out there til it manifests or something!

I found some of the reading I had to do in high school and college lit courses to be boring and dry but in many cases something that seemed daunting at first just required getting used to the prose style—definitely found this to be the case for authors like Dickens and Edith Wharton. I’m not sure if this is done now as audiobooks were not easily available when I was in high school but I think that audio editions should be accessible and suggested for readers who struggle, either as something to read the text while listening or just to listen to it.

Some students will always turn to whatever passes for Cliffs Notes currently, or watch a tv or movie version instead. Maybe lean into that a bit, offer an option for essays or tests to discuss the adaptation in relation to the actual text. My high school teacher used to forbid using Cliffs Notes at all, but I have found them useful even when reading for pleasure as an adult, in denser books to help keep characters and plot developments straight. If I were teaching I would encourage struggling students to use something like that as a guide.

It was never really explained to me as a student what the purpose of studying lit as we did was. Obviously in retrospect the texts and courses were structured to introduce concepts like style and themes and all that, but as I read voraciously for pleasure, I did get frustrated when I “couldn’t get into” a book or short story. I think it would have helped to have been reminded that there is a goal and reason for each assignment and if nothing else, you can get through it by focusing on that, much like it is a huge help in dealing with the reading comprehension stuff on an SAT or other standardized test by reading the questions first and then reading the text piece looking for those specific answers. Many of the students who don’t enjoy reading are more into math and science and allowing them to see the work as a series of solvable problems may help “set the table” for them. Other students have undiagnosed challenges like dyslexia or the more obscure text processing conditions, or ADHD and maybe need strategies to help them.

Reading for lit classes was my “treat” homework that I would do last. For math, science, history homework where there was a lot of writing and working between a big textbook and a notebook (not sure how all this works now with everyone having computers ) I would sit up at my desk but for reading I had a whole ritual of setting up my pillow nest on my bed, making some tea, and putting something like mini pretzels or Chex mix or M&Ms in a bowl and eating them as slowly as I could while reading. Having a special place and habits for reading seemed to set my mind for that. And since I had the same rituals for “fun reading” my brain got ready for a treat, even if it turned out I was about to give it Wuthering Heights oatmeal instead.

Encourage students to do what works for them to get thru the material, whether it’s using an audiobook, supplemental stuff or you tube discussion videos, reading it in little bites of 10-15 minutes with a small self-reward for each chunk completed, or even getting one of those “summary and analysis” books that are churned out for every big book from classics to best sellers. If nothing else, school is supposed to prepare you for life and work as an adult, and reading a summary and then faking your way through a presentation, book club discussion, or work meeting is certainly a critical life skill. It’s not ideal but not everyone is going to love reading, or love reading non-fluff.

I imagine todays students have a lot of issues with distraction. My self discipline these days is terrible for not wandering off from my book, often to check something on Google, and then falling down an internet rabbit hole. It’s hard to stay focused.

I had never read Agatha Christie. She is going through a big revival of interest in the books currently, it seems, but when I started reading adult mysteries her style was considered dated and fusty. I gravitated toward the more fallible human detective series like Spenser, Kinsey Milhone, VI Warshawski etc. I was in a severe reading slump last year and randomly decided to try Agatha Christie. Broke the slump! Her books are short and pretty immersive so they did the trick. Since then I’ve read books and listened to audiobooks and I find her delightful in both formats. Her prose doesn’t seem dated at all. Bonus: her books are now hitting public domain annually (in the US)so her first several novels and first collection of Poirot short stories are out there free at Project Gutenberg and other sites, and as LibriVox audiobooks.