There are few better ways to spend an afternoon than with a book. I’m not talking about the “read this book and write a five page analysis on it for Tuesday” kind of reading, but rather reading for fun. As an engineer, my classes and homework rarely involve reading so I take the chance to indulge in a novel every now and then.
I tend to stick to fiction. You’re going to think I’m really cool for this, but I’ll go ahead and admit it anyway: most of my favorite books are young adult fiction, some verging on children’s book territory. You faithful readers of The Daily Campus may remember my article last semester about my favorite book ever, The Little Prince. My opinion on most media tends to be along the lines of, “the world is depressing enough. I don’t need to add to that.”
One often re-read book in my library is The Phantom Tollbooth. I pity those unfortunate Daily Campus readers that didn’t read this masterpiece in elementary school like I did. I have several copies of it back home, and so this week I brought a copy to a friend of mine. Afterwards we had a discussion about it. She cruised through about half of it in between her classes and couldn’t put it down. At one point I received a mournful text about being stuck in class for the next four hours and thus being Tollbooth-less.
Although I just finished mentioning how I generally just read happy books, I also very much enjoy dystopian and apocalyptic fiction. Anything from the classic 1984 to more recently The Road, I’m a sucker for these futuristic warnings. Knowing that these are my two favorite genres, one might assume that The Hunger Games would top my all-time book list, but for whatever reason, that series just didn’t do it for me.
While my taste in books has not changed so much over my lifetime, my method of consumption has changed. I’ve even been hesitantly getting into the e-book scene. My mom is obsessed with her Nook, but I am slow to giving up my physical books. She actually got me a Kindle for my birthday and I get the sense that the future is literally in my hands. It is quite awesome to be able to instantly download nearly any book out there, wherever I am, and store them all in a device smaller than a single paperback.
The downside, of course, is that the adventure of physically searching the Half Price Books clearance shelf is a hobby of mine. I have bought countless one dollar books from that store and I am still working my way through my summer haul.
So many of my friends lament giving up reading for fun, and speak of Harry Potter and the Animorphs books as dearly departed friends. I say the fun of fiction shouldn’t be lost to us while we’re still so young. Whether it be with an e-book or a paperback, take some time from classes, homework and required reading to simply enjoy reading. Go claim a spot on campus and get lost in a story. If you need a book, you can always come ask me. I’ll gladly point you in the right direction or loan you one! Just don’t crease the spine or dog-ear the pages.
Ray is a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
