Carmen Carr
When did you start reading as a hobby?
“[As a child,] I loved Harlequin Romance novels … these little bitty thin love stories. And then, my grandmother started me on adult fiction [books] — things like Danielle Steele and V.C. Andrews. I’ve been reading books for a while.”
Any advice you’d give to those who want to start reading more outside of the classroom?
“We have to purposefully decide that we’re going to read and lay our tablets and our phones and everything down … As far as getting into it, I mean, I think that if you’re like ‘Oh, this looks interesting’ and [then] I’m reading it and it’s not, I think you should put it down and start something else … Like don’t waste your time because time is precious … And that’s hard because I know if you go buy these [books] at the store, you’re like ‘Woah, I just spent a lot of money on this,’ but that’s where the library comes in.”
Ellison Moore (11)
How do you discover the books you end up reading?
“Instagram; [I found most of my books from] just scrolling and stuff. Seeing something recommended — [be]cause most anime are from manga and like you could always go back to manga if there’s not an anime to watch.”
Are there certain things you look for when searching for a book to read?
“If I am recommended a sad book, I’ll probably read it … I like the mystery of it. Like from Instagram telling me, ‘Oh, don’t read this book blah, blah, blah, blah, it’ll tear you apart.’ I like [descriptions like] that. I think it’s intriguing and it kind of does tear me apart [emotionally], just a tiny bit, but it’s really worth it, I think, because it is so emotional and impactful.”
Zahra Altareb (11)
What are your favorite genres of books? Why?
“My favorite genres used to be very much like fantasy-fiction. But now, my interests are more like politics and history. So a lot of the books [that] I read now are about law or politics or history — all of those sorts of things … They’re mainly non-fiction.”
What about your least favorite “niche” book that you have read?
“I’m not sure if this is necessarily niche because it’s like one of the classics … but like “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. I think that was the most boring book I ever attempted to read, and it was just the style of [writing]. It was just so, so boring. I just couldn’t read it.”
Celeste Cruz (12)
How long do you read for? How many books do you try to read per year?
“[I read] just whenever I have free time; so probably max is like an hour and then after that I’ll be like, ‘Okay, I have to do something else.’ … I don’t have a goal, but I definitely wanna have like I guess, six in a year.”
Are there certain things you look for when searching for a book to read?
“I like female authors a lot more. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I read a book that did not have a female author. So, I guess that’s — I just like their writing a lot more, maybe because I’m a woman, so I just understand it better.”
What parts of the book did you like?
“The fact that I had no idea who the killer was. I didn’t know who it was until it was revealed that it was her. So yeah, unreliable and that it was from her perspective … I do like unreliable narrators.”
