For this series of stories I really want to focus on individualized hobbies that mean a lot to me and to others. One of these hobbies is reading. Reading means a lot to me as an individual and a lot of other people in the high school’s population; however, it is often regarded as a useless or meaningless activity.
“I think that normally [people who view reading as meaningless] are very uneducated or they’re not very open-minded, and I don’t think they’re very open to any ideas, any new subjects, or anything that could change their opinion,” McKenzie Riffle, 10, explained.
Riffle is one of many students who enjoys reading as a hobby and began reading in middle school.
“[I started reading] in sixth grade. When I started [reading], I saw advertisements for ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ show,” Riffle explained. “[Afterward,] I wanted to read the books, and then I just couldn’t stop.”
Inspired by advertisements originally, Riffle believes social media and marketing have a positive effect on readers.
“[Social media has made reading more popular]. Booktok has only increased readership. At Barnes [and Noble], there are booktok tables; there’s annotations all online, Pinterest, Tik Tok, and Instagram all have book platforms. On YouTube, there are people who have 24 hours to read-a-thons, and a lot of people just watch,” Riffle said.
After reading throughout the last few years, Riffle developed a few favorite books or series.
“[My favorite books are] ‘Binding 13’ and ‘Keeping 13’ by Chloe Walsh because I relate to them so much. [I also like] the ‘Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Mass because it’s just revolutionary,” Riffle highlighted.
For those wanting to get into reading, Riffle recommends going in open-minded.
“Book size doesn’t matter. It just matters about the content, not the size of the book. [Introductory readers should read] something lighthearted or an easy fantasy novel, like ‘Powerless’ by Lauran Roberts or ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ by Jenny Han,” Riffle explained.
Reading can mean so much to those who dig into books and those who understand the deeper meaning of books. Reading can become a huge part of one’s life all because they decided to explore the right book.
