between daemons: does 'required reading' ruin books?

Between Daemons is a discussion post series dealing in bookish and filmish topics. Inspired by the spiritual companions from the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, I chose that specific title to encourage comments and conversations grounded in the personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions you may not have the chance to share very often. While disagreement is welcome, disrespect is not. As always, please be polite to your fellow commenters!

A recent Twitter discussion about a user's average Goodreads rating (started by @WordsWithLara!) had me re-examining my one-star reviews. Since joining in 2012, I haven't added that many: only 12 out of a total 426 ratings. Some of them were books I'd picked up for pleasure only to very grudgingly, grumpily finish because I'd already paid for them, but others were books assigned to me in school. Out of that small brotherhood, a full third are required reading titles. They all have an average rating close to four stars or better, so these are a far cry from universally reviled books.

This disparity has me asking another question: do 'required reading' assignments negatively impact your enjoyment of a book?

With the school year approaching another end, it seemed like a fitting time to talk about our positive and negative experiences with school reading assignments. Personally, I can't fit all of my assigned readings into one category or the other. This is partly thanks to having high school English teachers who preferred to designate a category of books to choose from, rather than making the entire class read the same thing. Because of that flexibility I had my choice of National Book Award winners, classic novels, Shakespearean plays, and even current releases. While this made the actual school year much more enjoyable, summer reading usually didn't allow the same freedom of choice.

Those are the books I'm going to focus in on for this discussion: books assigned to the entire class with no input from students. I've selected a few that (I believe) are relatively common in American high school classrooms. Breaking them down into books I liked, disliked, and want to revisit, I dredge up my memories of required reading assignments through the years. Let's start with the positive, shall we?

between daemons: literary lions & lambs

Between Daemons is a discussion post series dealing in bookish and filmish topics. Inspired by the spiritual companions from the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, I chose that specific title to encourage comments and conversations grounded in the personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions you may not have the chance to share very often. While disagreement is welcome, disrespect is not. As always, please be polite to your fellow commenters!

This month I have to start off with a massive Thank you! to Nicole @ FeedYourFictionAddiction: without her amazing list of discussion post ideas, I don't know if I would have found the inspiration for a March post! If you ever find yourself in a similar case of blogger's block, be sure to stop by and look over all the topics she's compiled. Whether you want a seasonal or month-specific prompt, or just something more general, you're bound to find a little inspiration!

Her themed topic for March captured my attention as soon as I read it, so I see no reason to tinker with an already-great idea. Inspired by the notion that March "comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb", I'm going to list some of my favorite lions and lambs in the books that I've read. This isn't a literal challenge, though—you won't find Aslan anywhere on my list! Instead, "lions" are strong characters with big, bold personalities while "lambs" are those who stand out for their calm, peaceful demeanor. There's a lot to love at both ends of the spectrum, so let's get started!

between daemons: true (bookish) love

Between Daemons is a discussion post series dealing in bookish and filmish topics. Inspired by the spiritual companions from the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, I chose that specific title to encourage comments and conversations grounded in the personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions you may not have the chance to share very often. While disagreement is welcome, disrespect is not. As always, please be polite to your fellow commenters!

A popular theme for the month of February is love: familial, romantic, or platonic, everyone's attention seems to turn to the special people in our lives. I wanted to take a slightly different approach and, apropos to this blog's focus on books, discuss the presence of literary love in my life!

Because really, books don't differ all that much from the people we meet, do they? There are the unfortunate few we wish we'd never met, the fun and casual friends, the best friends, and the loves of our life. My favorite books are those that make me feel like the best version of myself: not because they're motivational self-help manuals, but because they inspire such a depth of emotion that I'm able to learn more about myself just by virtue of having read them.

Also like a love shared between people, the affection I feel for my favorite books can either be rooted in a very specific time, place, or feeling, or else it might grow and change with time. I've included a selection of both down below, and I hope after reading about my true bookish loves, you'll share yours with me as well!

between daemons: new year, old favorites?

Between Daemons is a discussion post series dealing in bookish and filmish topics. Inspired by the spiritual companions from the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, I chose that specific title to encourage comments and conversations grounded in the personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions you may not have the chance to share very often. While disagreement is welcome, disrespect is not. As always, please be polite to your fellow commenters!

A new year always brings on a fresh wave of resolutions. Since this is my first year month in the blogging community I'm learning a lot about what book bloggers like to focus on for improvement, which has in turn helped me starting out as a new blogger!

Sometimes their lists include things that are relevant to anyone building their online audience: attracting more followers and page hits, tweaking the function and appearance of their blog, and engaging more with the community. Then you see reading goals, whether it's the number of books or pages, certain genres they want to focus on, or building diversity in the authors and characters they pick to read.

Setting goals at the start of the year, no matter how big or how small, can help us grow in so many ways. But...do you ever find yourself in a rut after the holidays? More specifically, a reading rut?