In the world of education, reading has a much-needed role, both for reading materials to support subjects. But it is a big problem for teachers, because students' interests in reading are low, even though reading materials around students are abundant. This descriptive qualitative research is intended to investigate how students' interests and obstacles in reading English books and whether gender differences and reading materials affect them. Data collection was carried out through interviews and observation as research instruments. By participating in the observation of 32 students in seven grade and interview distribution of four female students and four male students. The study's findings revealed that students had little interest in reading English-language books. Three factors prevented students from reading, and then reading materials and gender had a significant impact on readers' interests. Research with other instruments and variables such as family involvement and age are recommended.