Hear! Hear! I haven't read all the comments yet but I know so many people who have been put off reading by what they had to do at school (when it was something like read Gerald Durrell and write a few essys & character studies), so I shudder at the thought of what hoops kids today have to jump through - from too early an age too by the sound of it.

When The Big Read came out Na'Lon and I tried to read various books that neither of us had read before which were on there, some were good, some were good but 'work' (To Kill a MOckingbird), some were okay but short (The Alchemist) and some were pure shite but highly reccommended by the LitCrit crowd, in this case Fowles' "The Magus" which I stopped reading a third of the way in and am not at all interested in finishing except for the reading equivalent of the hair-shirt medal. And frankly I'd rather watch paint dry as I'm sure that will only seem to last ages.