Ana Barraza
“Catcher in the Rye,” “1984,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Great Gatsby” and “Harry Potter”- using the wonders of Facebook are the top books read by local college students in the network.
But when all the homework is done, when eight-houvvr shifts have been worked and stomachs have been fed, what would the average college student prefer to do with that precious time?
Would they rather strain their eyes watching TV, playing video games or checking their latest comments on MySpace? Or would they prefer to spend some quality time with Boo Radley, Holden Caulfield or the beloved wizard, Harry?
Many students probably lost the urge to read for pleasure well before they had to balance 12 units and part-time jobs.
It was most likely when they were getting hit with that “required summer reading list” before freshman year of high school, making Cliffs Notes their loyal friend ever since.
Some, however, still manage to make reading for fun part of their nightly ritual.
“I read before I go to bed. It relaxes me,” said Pierce student Wesley Baker, 24, undeclared, who is currently reading Steve Martin’s “Pure Dribble.”
In Baker’s opinion, most college students only read because of school obligations and therefore don’t know what’s going on in the world.
“They don’t watch the news, and if they do, they watch the Colbert Report or the Daily Show and think that’s actual news. I read the L.A. Times and the Financial Times,” said Baker, a fan of historical novels. “Stuff like that is interesting, different points of view of history and different sides of a story.”
Baker’s favorite author to read “over and over and over” is Patrick F. McManus, a whimsical author who elaborates on all his childhood fishing and camping stories. Baker’s favorite book, however, is “The Last Catholic in America” by John R. Powers.
“It’s absolutely hilarious,” he said.
While the average college student has so much on their plate already, one wouldn’t think that a little reading for pleasure would rouse feelings of guilt.
“Embarrassingly enough, I have read the last two ‘Harry Potters,’ but every time I pick up a book other than a textbook, I feel bad bevcause I’m neglecting class work,” said Vincent Lazzaretto, a 22-year-old philosophy major who is currently reading Chuck Palahniuk’s book, “Diary.”
Responding to whether he thought most college students read recreationally, he said, “I think students are so overwhelmed with required reading as it is, not to mention spending $75 to $100 on a textbook and then spending extra money to read for pleasure makes you feel pretty guilty.”
Shannon Diffner, an English department teacher, observes that most students don’t do much reading for pleasure.
“I believe that if they could find a way to fit it into their schedules, it would not only help them de-stress, but also to master things such as sentence fragments and comma and semi-colon use,” said Diffner, who recommends one of her personal favorites, “The Tortilla Curtain,” a novel by T.C. Boyle.
It’s a contemporary story about two couples – one legal and one undocumented – living here in Los Angeles.
“It’s gripping and thought-provoking,” Diffner said.
Having never read a Harry Potter book herself, Florence Robin, the Pierce librarian, is nonetheless amazed by the phenomenon.
“To think young and old would stand in line to read a book, it’s heartening,” she said. She is hopeful that interest in books like Harry Potter will stimulate an interest in reading overall.
“With the internet and iPods, the computer has changed the focus, yet there is hope,” said Robin, noting the thousands of people that show up for the UCLA book festival.
“Here at the Pierce library, romance novels are very popular among the female students,” she said.
Because of budget constraints and the fact that college libraries are mainly supposed to support the curriculum, there is not much money left over to buy the popular best-sellers. She hopes to enhance the fiction selection through the library’s collection development.
Robin, who will read a book even while stuck in traffic on the freeway, recalled a conversation with a student who, much to his dismay, needed to find a book to read for a class and was asking for her help.
Sharing with him her love for reading, she told him she will get so into a book sometimes that she forgets to make dinner by the time her husband gets home.
Not convinced, the student responded, “Yeah, but your husband still didn’t get his dinner.”
A Pierce College student takes on a stack of books. (Gil Riego Jr. and David Salpeter)