Yup, it's something I myself recently started to realise and have been forcing myself to read things that actually interest me.

While in elementary and middle school every 2 months we had a specific book we had to read and then would discuss it in class and would be graded based on our input.

Reading books and writing essays has been cemented in my mind as a boring chore that is forced upon me. It took years before it even occured to me that reading might be a fun activity, and a couple more before I actively started trying to read again. It's difficult to break away from the mould I've been set to during my childhood, but I'm slowly chipping away at it.

Children SHOULD read, but how can we get them to WANT to read?