I can certainly agree with the "required reading sucks" sentiment. Some of the stuff we had to read just didn't do it for me at the time. I've gone back and revisited some of the books that we had to read, and enjoyed them a second time around, but at the time...there were constant groans when we had to pull out our copies of Catch-22.
Towards the end of my schooling, my high school relied on the crutch of
Accelerated Reader to get students to read as it was a required portion of our grade. We would have to go find books on an approved list, read them, and take a quiz on the contents of said books to get points. Most of the books on that list weren't interesting. Thankfully, I had read most of Mom's Stephen King books (most of which came with generous point totals) and I was able to get 2 years worth of credit in a single sit-down at the computer.