Do students benefit more from picking their own books?

Do students truly benefit from picking their own books???

Many teachers are starting classes that give their student the ability to choose their own book instead of having assigned books for the class. While some object to this and believe it doesn't enforce the vital aspects of reading and gives the students to much freedom to stray from the true lessons of classic novels, I believe it is a rewarding process that intrigues more pupils. Being a student that was apart of this class I found it more interesting to find a novel that appealed to me. In the past I was never was a reading fanatic and never explored all the genres of books. However, after taking a course that allowed me to pick my own books it actually inspired me become interested in new best sellers, history novels, and mysteries. By completing the necesary classwork and homework analysis we were able to identify the major themes, character traits, and symbols individually and connected alll of the usual studies to our novels.

Many novels that others in our class read included Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, and Safe Haven. Clearly these are the typical Huck Finn or Shakespeare school books however I can adequetly say that the individual novels were able to expand our view of history and writing just as well as these famous texts. Personally I was able to identify the different aspects of crime, romance, and historical fiction themes and aplpy them to different period of writing in world history.

All in all, I feel that the majority of students do benefit from picking their own books because though some of it might not be completely relevant to historical eras, it is completely relavent to the present. It allows the student to immerse themselves in something that they are interested in and would otherwise never consider reading. To  be completely honest I am not usually an avid reader but by exploring the many choices of books that are out there it allowed me to become a more itrigued reader who definitely enjoys reading alot more.