Killing reading in the classrooms!

Laziness and procrastination should be listed as certified diagnosis of overwhelmed mothers and educators... we have so much do to... so many books and journals and articles to read... that we loose sight of the activities that bring us joy - like reading for pleasure.

Isn't that amazing! The students are the same way. How many times do we hear it everyday -

"Why do we have to read? I hate reading?" Or, one of my favorites... "Why do we have to write so much in English class?" When another student responds "Because it's English class!"

Yet, as an adult, I also put reading on the back burner (like the burned dinner...). We expect students to come to our classrooms to read and enjoy what they are reading, yet we kill it with study guides, vocabulary review, questions, quizzes, tests. If you did that to me for every book I read - I too would quit reading. My kindle (which I received in November) would not already have 67 books (full length and samples) already downloaded just waiting to be devoured.

How do we move students from Learning to Read - to Reading to Learn without killing the fun and enjoyment that comes from being immersed in a passage of depth and adventure?