It’s the end of the school year, and everyone is excited. No more schoolwork! No more homework! But wait, you have required summer reading. And looking at the assigned book, it’s over 200 pages of something you don’t care about.

I’ve noticed that most people hate their summer reading and put it off until right before school starts, sometimes not even reading the book and resorting to reading notes on the internet to pass quizzes. It’s hard to force yourself to read a book when it’s daunting, boring and altogether unpleasant to think about during break.

If teachers gave students summer reading options, each student could choose a book that they might enjoy, rather than tolerating or outright hating the book assigned to the entire class. Instead of assigning one book, teachers could assign a preapproved list of options.

However, offering a list might be problematic as many teachers assign work based on the summer reading during the first few weeks, which could be an issue if everyone has chosen different books. It would put a lot more pressure on the teachers to interpret multiple books simultaneously while keeping a unified class.

How about having students vote on a book instead?

Teachers could survey students to see which book students would rather read out of a given list of books, which could prompt students to research the book options and gain an interest in the books. It would also be easy to arrange, with a quick Google form emailed to students during the last month of school right before Chromebooks are turned in.

It’s counterproductive to force students to read books they have no interest in. Hopefully next summer we have a choice.