Apologies for the Rant

I had English and Drama today, followed by an extra rehearsal for a play I'm currently in with my Youth Theatre. So, all in all - good day :)

However, there is one thing that continually grinds. People, highly intelligent, highly motivated people don't read books.

When one has the opportunity to burrow into the fantastical chasm that is the world of books, it's criminal to refuse it. Yet, some of my Lit class don't.
We are writing a comparison essay of Silas Marner by George Eliot and Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare. They are both good stories. Forget the language. They are entertaining, there's a journey. And who doesn't like a challenge every now and again?

Also, there's the added pressure of the essay being 25% of the GCSE.Strangely, GCSE English is quite important.So why on earth do individuals shirk their opportunity to delve into a good book? Ok, fair enough, we're all guilty of skim reading the middle of a book when the going gets tough and deadlines lurk round the corner, but we've had the entirety of 6 whole weeks of summer to read 2 books.

Furthermore, I think it's a shocking indictment the education system that school kids don't have to read the entire book and still achieve stellar results! (Oh, by the way, I go to one of those extremely nerdy grammar schools when we all had to pass a test to get in and people achieve 37,897 A*'s at GCSE and A-Level. I joke, obviously that's a ridiculous number, by I do know someone with 17! However, you would expect them to care enough about their education to want to read the books.)

I don't know. In case you were wondering, I read them immediately, then promptly forgot the storyline of Silas and had to read it again once term had started. But I loved it, so it was fine. Don't get me wrong, by no stretch of the imagination am I saying that you have to love every book you read - it would be unfairly dictatorial of me to state that. Just give books a chance.

Alright, rant over and out. I'm off to go find myself a good book!