School made me hate reading. Prior to around 7th grade, I used to read a ton. Easily one like "adult-sized" book every two weeks. Up until that point, school reading wasn't much of a thing. We might read a book at school or the books were honestly so below the level I could read them in spare time at school over a couple days.

Suddenly, they want to heap on all these books. I didn't even hate most of the books if I'm honest, but it's all the twisting them around to dig up all these supposed hidden meanings and analyse the shit out of them. Don't dare submit a paper questioning the approved analysis either. I eventually said to hell with it about 9th grade and just started buying those cliff note things and making up essays the night before. I would do just as well anyway.

The last paper I ever submitted to an English/Literature/Writing type class was the final paper for a college course, it was a pretty open ended type assignment and I did it on why the overanalysis of literature was a bad thing. It was very detailed, cited, etc. Far and away the most time I spent on a college paper for such a class. It was also the worst grade by far I ever got on a college paper for such a class. Yeah, the one I forgot about and wrote at 2am the night before it was due full of drivel did better.

I was almost 30 before I really got back into reading again, and still not at the level of kid me. Albeit, I have less time to spend on it now.