Reading Books

This week I seem to be getting several notices about a World Reading Day. Designating a day for some project might be fine, I don't know much about how such a designation influences people. The cause is important as so many people don't read, if they can avoid it.
The local schools do something called Accelerated Reading where students must read a number of books off a list and take comprehension tests about them. The purpose is to encourage students to read. The result is often the opposite making them resent reading.
How do you get a young person to enjoy reading? I don't know exactly. Perhaps it must be done on an individual basis.
What I do know is that students read books they enjoy reading on topics they are interested in. Too often book lists are too limited in scope.
A history class long ago had a book list. The class went into shock when the list was passed out. It was six or seven pages long.
Then the directions were given. We were to choose a half dozen books from the list, read them and turn in simple book reports. What helped was the range of books on the list which included nonfiction history on many events and machines and fictional historical novels. Some were short. Others were long. The long ones gained more points but the choices were ours and we could read more, if we wanted to.
I don't remember exactly what happened way back then but the idea has appeal. It let students find what interested them at a level they were comfortable reading. Of course, there would need to be more oversight now with the internet book reviews.
The slogan now is: Make America Great Again. Trade policy won't do it. Jobs won't do it. Education, and love of reading is an important part of this, can.
Let's read to it.