In elementary school, we had AR Reading (anyone remember that?) where we got points for books we read if we took an AR Test over them. We had personal point goals set for us, and I'm pretty sure I always went over the goal. I didn't necessarily try to - I just read a lot. I seem to remember reading all of the Hardy Boys books at least once (5 points apiece, thank you very much) and making sure to read the Harry Potter ones that had come out thus far, because they were worth a lot of points based on their thickness alone. I always had a book opened and overturned on the corner of my desk, for those moments of free time that were oh-so-rare in fifth grade.
In middle school, we had reading logs where we had to write down the title and number of pages we read for each time we read. I often forgot to write things down because I was too busy finishing books and starting new ones to bother with the silly idea of getting a grade for it.
Somewhere in high school, in the midst of harder classes and the time-leech that is Texas high school marching band, I stopped reading as much. It happened so gradually that I didn't notice. The majority of books I read were for class, which I didn't mind doing (except don't make me read The Sound And The Fury ever again). I never stopped enjoying books, but I forgot that it was something I could do for fun. Some kind of weird disconnect happened as I started to associate books with mildly-enjoyable homework assignments, not free time.
Recently, I've been trying to get back into the habit of reading. I can't read for hours at a time - the focus you need for reading a book is like a muscle, and mine got out of shape. I used to be able to spend entire days reading, but I find myself getting more easily distracted now. Maybe I'm just old, like I said. Almost-21 is ancient. But I've slowly been building my endurance up again, especially in light of my relatively recently-discovered passion for Christian fiction (one day, that blog post will happen. One day).
Here are some writing styles I've noticed in my renewed quest to devour more literature, with some examples of Christian novels that I've recently read for my upcoming thesis study:
Cafeteria food. Honestly, it's pretty disgusting. But it gets the job done, and sometimes if you squint hard enough, you can see the semblance of something decent-tasting that it could have been. It usually does more damage than good. Avoid at all costs.
Snack. You eat it because you need something to tide you over until a real meal. That's what you should do, anyway, though some people eat a lot of it in place of a good meal, which is unhealthy. The writing isn't terrible, but it doesn't give you a fully satisfied feeling. Think Twilight. Not terrible writing, but certainly nothing special. Bad for you, but tastes good in a greasy sort of way.