Reading for fun is a concept that some college students find foreign, while others would never dream of giving it up. Between reading for class, studying and extracurricular activities, many students can’t seem to find the time to sit down and read a book that they don’t have to.
“I’m not a big fan of reading because I can never find a book that interests me enough,” said Rach Reid, a sophomore in elementary education. “I am more of an active person, I guess. I like to go and do things. I like to relax and everything, but never read.”
Tarsi Woods, a senior in apparel merchandising, agrees.
“I don’t like reading because I always get distracted and it always takes me forever to finish a book,” Woods said. “Especially with having to read various things for my classes for homework every night ... it makes me not want to spend my free time reading a book for pleasure.”
Many students feel that they read enough for class and in turn don’t want to have to read anything else. This, along with the time constraints of college, can make people lose sight of the values of reading. However, some still are able to find the time, however small, to read.
“I actually love reading for fun,” Peyton Maddox, a sophomore in elementary education said. “All my friends think it’s so weird.”
Allegra Lynch, a sophomore in business, also felt that she was the only one of her friends that liked to read.
“I love to read,” Lynch said. “I’m a low-key book nerd, but I’m positive a lot of my friends don’t like reading.”
Both Maddox and Lynch enjoy mainly reading fiction. Lynch’s favorite book is “Perks of Being a Wallflower,” and while Maddox doesn’t have an all-time favorite, her most recent read is “Gone Girl.”
Both of these books have recently became movies. While the movie, “Perks of Being a Wallflower,” took many years to produce, “Gone Girl” was an instant success.
Ben Eagan, a junior in psychology, also had favorite books that became movies.
“My favorite books are ‘The Shining,’ ‘Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ and ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’” Eagan said.
While some people assume books in juvenile fiction such as “A Wrinkle in Time” are only to be read by children, they are surprisingly popular among people of all ages.
“My favorite series is Harry Potter,” said Olivia Reda, junior in nursing. “I started reading the series in 8th grade. I would pick it up like once a year and read one book, and then I would be too busy to read another one till the next year. So I’ve been reading them as I grew up.”
On the flip side, some students shy away from classic literature, either because they are sick of it from reading it in high school or because they find the prose too complex to read just for fun. Hannah Marsh, and senior in chemical engineering, disagrees.
“My favorite book is ‘The Sun Also Rises’ by Ernest Hemingway,” Marsh said. “I love that book so much; I’ve read it so many times. I even wrote a paper in high school about it.”
Marsh believes that reading classics allows the reader to be more creative and critical, rather than just soaking in the romantic stories of today’s fiction.
“Hemingway wrote in the exact opposite way that I think,” Marsh said. “He left all the flowery details up to the imagination, so when you read, you have total freedom. That’s why I truly love reading.”
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