In spring and summer terms some students trade their textbooks for fun summer reads.
In an effort to stay focused on their studies, many students abstain from pleasure reading until the semester ends, putting books they wanted to read at the back of their minds.
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Charles said he is currently reading “How to Get Ideas” by Jack Foster to learn more about the creative process.
“It’s been fun to see what I do and don’t do and what I can implement into my life,” he said. “The guy kinda talks about the concept of faith, in having faith in an idea, that it’s there, that it’s a good idea. I really like it. It’s better than reading a textbook. Sometimes one sentence or phrase can change your understanding.”
Stephanie Peterson, a sophomore from Mesa, Ariz., studying business management recommends “The Hunger Games.”
“I liked how intense it was right from the beginning,” Peterson said. “You couldn’t stop reading it. It’s just interesting.”
Peterson also recommends “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Gone with the Wind” and the Harry Potter series because of the movie finale in July.
Ben Simmons, a senior from Pilot Mountain, N.C., studying psychology, has a unique way of finding things to read.
“Basically, the way I’ve found most of the books I’ve read has been goodreads.com,” Simmons said. “You can search books by genre … it’s a good website because you can see reviews of what people say about it. It works a lot like Facebook where you can have friends and see what they’re reading at the same time. You can discuss books with other people even if you don’t know them.”
Simmons recommends “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “Blink” and “Outliers,” both by Malcolm Gladwell.
Stephanie Adams, a senior from Mesa, Ariz., studying math education, has a few titles on her book list.
“Right now I’m reading ‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy, and he also writes “War and Peace,’ which everyone knows and have talked about reading,” Adams said.
Tyler Lively, a junior from Redmond, Wash., studying business management, just finished reading “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak.
“The story is written by the personification of Death,” Lively said. “It’s during World War II and Death follows this little girl around and follows her life and sees the death that she sees. Death feels sorry for the people that he has to take out of her life. It was fascinating. It’s not quick moving like a Dan Brown book, but it dives really deep into how Death really feels about his job.”
Lively also recommends “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel, the abridged version of “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo and “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas.
As readers head out into the summer sun, there are an infinite amount of books that could become a new favorite.
