In a recent column, I argued that good writing can be encouraged in the classroom, but not “taught.” This column looks at the love for literature, which can be taught through modeling. Some of my most vivid memories of high school teaching come from students who surprised themselves (and me) by becoming inspired while reading a novel.

My first teaching job was in a school where students did not come from families of readers. Their cultural literacy was high only if you count cars and football as part of the definition of “culture.”

Although they were not well read, they were bright and enthusiastic and had no preconceptions. It is the only school where I got away with teaching Chaucer in the original Middle English! Students didn’t gravitate to an “easy read” because no one knew what was easy and what was hard.

That became clear in their “booktalks,” based on a book of their choosing.  One student picked Sophocles’ “Antigone” because it was the shortest book he could find, and found it fascinating — even though he pronounced the author’s name Saw-Pho-Culls instead of Saw-Pho-Cleeze. Another student read her first Jane Austen novel and gave the title as “The Pride and The Prejudice,” making it sound like a television soap opera. They may have erred in a detail or two, but they were hooked on the classics.

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More recently, I’ve seen non-readers discover a novel’s power. Last year Khaled Hosseini’s “Kite Runner” was a choice for outside reading, and a couple of students concealed it beneath their desks so they could read it in class surreptitiously. One girl told me it was the first book she’d finished all year.

Another recent addition to my curriculum was “Bel Canto,” by Ann Patchett, a novel many finished long before the due date. The theme of love in the midst of a harrowing hostage crisis was irresistible to students. A few of them turned their books in late “because my mom wanted to read it.”

Although my future teaching will be solely on the college level, I find myself reading novels with high school in mind. This summer I discovered Nicole Mones’ novels, all three of which take place in Beijing. Her most recent, “The Last Chinese Chef,” is particularly current because it features a cooking competition in preparation for this summer’s Olympic games. Like “Bel Canto,” there is an underlying theme of finding true love in unlikely places — a theme that never gets old with high school students.

But I will have to confine my enthusiasm to college students and friends. No more “booktalks.” Yet as I remember students’ attachment to one novel or another, I realize that my classroom and love for books contributed to their enthusiasm.

It took me many years to realize that not every student will love reading — and some will not like a single novel, all year long. But when given choices, most will find something engaging.

Love of literature can be taught, by example and by making good choices for the classroom. I only regret I discovered “The Last Chinese Chef” a year too late to introduce it to my high school students!

Erica Jacobs teaches at George Mason University. E-mail her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.