It worries me that undergrads and high school students are forced into books they aren't ready for, like Faulkner's, and then they are afraid of putting their toes in the water again.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I have a feeling that books are a lot like people - they change as you age, so that some books that you hated in high school will strike you with the force of a revelation when you're older.
I understand why parents worry about books - they're worried about their kids. They want to keep their kids safe. But parents aren't always realistic.
One of the problems is that kids who don't read - who are not doing well in school - they know they're not doing well. And they want everyone to be in that same category.
Pretending that there are no choices to be made - reading only books, for example, which are cheery and safe and nice - is a prescription for disaster for the young.
The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.
Why not write a book which is as sophisticated as a book for an adult, but is about the concerns that teenagers actually have?
Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publications.
It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written.
Becoming an author changes your attitude too. Once you see where books come from, and how they're made, they never seem quite as sacred again.
Books are up against TV and movies and video games and a multimedia society that is so busy that people don't have contemplative time any more. I worry deeply about this. In fact, I worry about everything all the time. I used to be a punk. All I wanted to do was tear everything down, and that was so much easier.
No opposing quotes found.