I think the basic assumption made, that the students are willing (yearning) to read is not my observation in my classroom. I have a hard time trying to get them to read a few pages of text that is full all real-world applications (statistics). The SSR time is a very good opportunity to encourage leisurely reading. My students have not been faithfully doing this either. Instead, I have watched them go to sleep, do HW assignments or simply wanting to chat with other students at this time, in the time allocated for this. I have avoided having to take disciplinary actions on some of these students, hoping to keep away confrontations and let gentle persuations rule.
I am not sure how one can overteach (a book?) in a subject like mathematics, especially statistics. I have often thought that we need to assign mandatory reading as most students simple use class notes and try to do HW assignments without reading the text themselves (especially given our culture of non-accuracy grading in HW!)
We certainly do not overanalyze books in maths. If anything I think we need to spend more time analyzing some examples more. But again, as the author corrently points out, we are accountable to the EOCs and national exams that the students need to take at the end of course. It is going to be worse now that the legislature proposes to tie teacher salary to test scores! This will greatly undermine the philosophy advocating for creating lifelong learning.
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