Students say reading isn’t just for college

Payton Thompson Reporter

Students like to read not only for academic purposes but also as a hobby, they told Campus Current.

“I enjoy [the] academic reading I do for school,” Emma Riordan, a first-year sociology student, said. “But when I’m reading on my own, I’m doing it more for my own enjoyment.”

According to health information site Heathline. com, people who read consistently have better brain de- velopment. More specifically, reading expands vocabulary and comprehension, lowers stress levels and increases relaxation.

“Anytime you read anything you can learn something new,” Basic Needs Coordinator Caitlin Silver-Negron, who helps run a Diversity Series book club on campus, said. “As a kid, if I didn’t recognize a word while reading a book, my parents would encourage me to get a dictionary and look it up.”

English professor Can- dice Hill said reading helps people develop empathy.

“There was this cool psychology study that talked about novel reading as being the best way to practice empathy because it’s your ability to put yourself into someone else’s shoes,” Hill, who runs the book club with Silver-Negron, said.

Creative writing professor Garrett Brown said people read nonfiction or fiction for different purposes.

“I think nonfiction is a lot more informative and fiction can be a lot more speculative say they enjoy reading as a hobby. Shown, first-year dental hygienist and in a lot of ways fanciful,” Brown said. “But at the end of the day, I would say there’s probably no difference in benefits.”

Izzy Chase, a first-year creative writing student, said reading can be an escape from everyday life.

Silver-Negron said some students don’t enjoy reading because of how they are introduced to books.

“When they’re forced to read in school [they might not]enjoy the books that they read,” Silver-Negron said.