In my previous post, On Modern Illiteracy,  I mentioned that conquering the failure of our education system to produce functionally literate adults who enjoy a good book might begin with self-education.  This could mean learning a new language, taking risks, learning about another culture, watching something educational instead of reality TV, or reading a book.

I consider reading the most important item on that list.  However, not everyone has learned to enjoy reading.  I don't think it's a matter of people simply not liking to read and therefore never wanting to (although I'm sure this is the case sometimes), but rather a matter of people having never learned that reading for pleasure can actually be fun and entertaining, just as good as watching a movie or television.  Because of the way reading is presented as part of school curriculum, people lose the drive to read and begin to view it as a chore.

So if you're someone who is interested in bettering themselves through self-education, pursuing the things you enjoy and want to learn in order to improve yourself and your life, and learning to view reading as something enjoyable and beneficial instead of boring and forced, I've got a few good suggestions for you!  Here are five books that won't be too challenging for a non-reader but will still be able to capture imaginations and spark interest.  If you're a reader, don't hesitate to suggest these to your non-reading friends; you just might change their lives!

1.) The Giver by Lois Lowry - Alright, I know I've recommended this book so much for everything, but it really is a great and important book!  A lot of people get assigned this book to read in grade or middle school, but how many people really read it or paid attention when they did?  The Giver is about Jonas, a boy in a utopian world of no war, no pain, and no choices, who is about to turn 12.  12 is the age when people in his community are assigned to the job they will perform for the rest of their lives, and Jonas is mortified when he isn't called onto the stage with the rest of his classmates to receive his job assignment.  Then he is told that he will be given the most important job there is, the job of Receiver.  Receiver of what?  Memories of pain, war, pleasure, and the dark truth about the society he lives in.

2.) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Although not as commonly assigned as The Giver, Things Fall Apart is another book encountered in high school English classes that students might be inclined to dismiss.  If you're looking for a starting point for investigating other cultures, this might be the book for you!  Okonkwo is a prominent tribe elder in his Ibo village in Nigeria, and his strong, warrior-like attitude that abhors weakness of any kind has brought him great success.  However, when aggressive European missionaries invade his native land and uproot and destroy the beautiful culture he has always known, Okonkwo refuses to stop fighting the shattering of his fragile world to the very end.

3.) Deadline by Chris Crutcher - So you don't like romance, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, fiction, nonfiction, any genre!... But you do like sports.  Then Deadline is the book for you.  Chris Crutcher incorporates plenty of good sports action into this book, which just might lure you into a world much deeper than the next touchdown.  Ben Wolf is an 18-year-old high school senior who has just been diagnosed with aggressive leukemia.  He has elected to forgo treatment and won't be telling his family so that he can have the best senior year he could possibly have without the stigma of his disease following him and defining him.  He sets some goals: enlighten his closed-minded civics teacher, help the local drunk clean up his act, become the best darn football player Trout, Idaho, has ever seen, and talk to the captivating Dallas Suzuki.  But keeping his secret isn't going to be as easy as he thought.

4.) Cujo by Stephen King - Horror can be an amazing genre, but if you pick up the wrong book, you'll never be able to get into it.  There are some terrible dime-store novels out there that are just so lame, and if you pick up something too long like Stephen King's It, you might get bogged down if it's your first time and start to hate the tedium.  However, while it will keep you captivated for a long time, Cujo is relatively short.  It's like a concise version of what great horror writing should be.  Vic and Donna Trenton have a son named Tad, and Tad is terrified of the monster in his closet that he is sure will get him one day.  When Donna and Tad find themselves stranded in the countryside, locked in the hot car with a rabid St. Bernard outside, Tad knows exactly what beast they are facing.

5.) Dear John by Nicholas Sparks - Like the horror genre, the romance genre is riddled with terrible books that are just so bad, they shouldn't even exist.  And yet, this is the genre that most people read and that people find easy to read.  If you're ready to read, don't know where to start, and nothing else appeals, perhaps the strong emotions that a romance novel can evoke will capture you.  Not really knowing what to do with himself, John Tyree joined the Army after dropping out of high school, but when he meets Savannah Lynn Curtis, he knows his life is going to change.  Savannah is a college student who volunteers for Habitat for Humanity and loves horses, and although reluctant, she falls quickly and passionately in love with John, pulling him into a world full of meaning that he never had access to before.  They vow to wait for each other while he finishes his tour of duty, but 9/11 turns their lives on end.  John decides to re-enlist, and the extended separation finds Savannah falling in love with someone else.  When John returns home, he finds that Savannah is married and still the girl of his dreams.  Now he faces the hardest decision of his life.