Students’ Choice: Benefits of Peer-Choice Reading

As an avid reader, it was difficult to see why my fellow classmates would complain about assigned reading in high school. A book is a book to some, no matter the content and its lack of relation to one’s current circumstances: universal truths existed within the pages, even if it required some digging. But, not all of my peers felt this way and grew to resent reading. The classics that were assigned didn’t hold their attention, and the selections that were for a teenaged audience were woefully outdated (here’s looking at you, Ponyboy: stay gold forever but please give me something from this decade).

But then, the Twilight epidemic hit and suddenly, reading was cool again. At least, for the moment. Book tucked under your arm was a new accessory, a new tool to prove that you were in the cool club. Was it the hottie vampire that attracted the audience? Maybe. But, I’d like to think it was also the choice: this wasn’t a book sanctioned by the adults in the library, not something that was “good” for us to read. We decided. We read.

But, then the craze subsided — everyone had read the story. There were no more books proudly displayed in the halls, no avid discussion of characters and their decisions. My peers returned to the practice of sullenly skimming through textbooks, rarely setting foot inside the library, and forgetting the pleasures of reading when mixed with the freedom of choice.