WHY I USE BOOKS AND NOT TEXTBOOKS FOR TEACHING LITERATURE

By Heidi Wethered

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I love reading.  I love books –there’s something about going into a bookstore and seeing the limitless rows of beautifully-bound books that will allow me to experience different cultures, time periods, and adventures.  With that in mind, there are many reasons I prefer to have my students read books in their entirety as opposed to using textbooks.

First, textbooks contain several short stories, essays, and poetry.  Most only have one full-length novel or play.  This doesn’t allow for much in-depth analysis of plot or character development.  Longer works may involve sub-plots and contain more than one theme requiring the reader to think more critically to determine the elements of the story.

Another advantage of reading entire books is that it gives students the exposure to a variety of authors allowing them to choose favorite authors, writing styles, and even genres.  It helps them compare an author’s writing style when writing short stories or essays vs. novels.  Mark Twain and John Steinbeck are excellent examples of authors whose writing styles differed greatly depending on the type of work they were writing.

I also like to have my students read “classic” books.  In her article in The Classical Teacher, Louise Cowan defines classics as having the following characteristics:

1. The classics not only exhibit distinguished style, fine artistry, and keen intellect, but create whole universes of imagination and thought.
2. They portray life as complex and many-sided, depicting both negative and positive aspects of human character in the process of discovering and testing enduring virtues.
3. They have a transforming effect on the reader’s self-understanding.
4. They invite and survive frequent re-readings.
5. They adapt themselves to various times and places and provide a sense of the shared life and humanity.
6. They are considered classics by a sufficiently large number of people, establishing themselves with common readers as well as qualified authorities.
7. And, finally, their appeal endures over wide reaches of time.

It is my hope that reading the classics will encourage my students to start their own classics library.  Most students will not pick up a textbook and re-read it.   Hopefully, of the books we read in class, some will be ones that they will want to keep and read again.  Many of the books I’ve chosen are ones that I read and enjoyed when I was in high school. 

Cowan, L. (2020, Winter). What is a classic? The Classical Teacher, 32-33.