Lord of the Rings: Week 4 and Books in School

I'm still reading Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King this week. I am currently on page 242 of the book and should be around 254 after tomorrow. So I have finally started book six which opens on Frodo and Sam where they left off in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Frodo was captured and taken by orcs, leaving Sam with the ring to attempt to rescue him. He goes forth, expected a battle with some orcs, but finds that most of them are dead from a disagreement between the two groups of orcs. He happens upon one that finds him and then goes running up the tower to inform his leader, Shagrat. Sam listens to them for a bit and then follows the messenger as he goes up to where they have hidden Frodo. He gives the ring back to Frodo and then gathers supplies for them to move on in their journey. They dress as orcs so as to blend in if seen. They then go on in their journey by jumping into a valley that will help lead them to Mount Doom by keeping them out of sight. The valley runs along a road and leads up to a middle point between two mountains. They travel to the mountains and then are forced to take the road through the middle. Luck is with them for a while, but soon a massive group of orcs comes swiftly behind them and spots them. However, the orc leader thinks they are deserters and tells them to get into the line and march. Frodo and Sam are weary and tried, almost unable to keep up with the swift pace of the orcs, but they manage it and are not found out. As they reach the destination the orcs were headed to, other groups of orcs come at the same side and since they all want to get in the gate first, a fight breaks out, giving Frodo and Sam an opportunity to slip away unnoticed. They rest for a bit and then continue on their journey, reaching Mount Doom soon after. They begin up the road, but Frodo is too weak to continue and Sam has to carry him. They then have an encounter with Gollum who wants the ring back and so attacks Frodo. The attack invigorates Frodo to fight back to protect the ring which essentially has full control over him now. They drive him off and Frodo has new found energy to walk up to Mount Doom. Right as he is supposed to destroy the ring, he says he has changed his mind and that the ring shall be his. He then puts the ring on and kicks at Sam's legs from behind.

Now for the weekly question: Many students find books assigned for class to be boring or uninteresting, yet others find those same books to be engaging, relevant, and wonderful. Does this response have more to do with the book being "assigned" or is there something else going on? What advice would you give teachers to help students engage with these books?

 I think that books assigned for class can have mixed responses mostly because of the different personal preferences for books that people have. Sure, the fact that students are being forced to read a book might have some sort of impact on their opinions on it, but I do not really think it influences opinions too much. For example, many students have to read The Great Gatsby for class. Many students enjoy that book for a reason that I, personally cannot understand. I found it dry and dull because of the amount of nothing that happened in the book. What it comes down to is different personal preference for a type of book. Where as I prefer very exciting, fantastic books, some people prefer realistic books. This happens in class all the time because it is unlikely that someone will like every genre of book that is presented to him or her. To attempt to engage students with books, it might be a good idea to provide interesting projects with the books or perhaps have a choice of a small variety of books that students can read. This way, the books will be more interesting for each student as an individual.