The Pirate Post

By Emma Wood & Alexis Crum

If you had to guess how many students in our school read regularly for entertainment, what would you say? Maybe you would assume it is a quarter of the students here, maybe a third? Maybe if you are gracious enough you might even assume half? 

According to a classroom survey of 180 students throughout all grades and class levels, only 37 of them said that they read frequently. That means that out of five students, four of them do not read.

Now, at first glance, this might not seem like a surprising statistic, especially when you imagine a student’s life: they wake up, stretch, brush their teeth, get dressed, grab their bag and somehow get to school. When they arrive, they go to class and grumble about every assignment or book club assigned. Class ends, and they decide to meander through the halls to their next. After eight periods of the same thing over and over again, they get to leave. Either they go home and scroll on their phone and play games, or they stay after school for sports and rehearsals. After all of that, they go to bed, and it all repeats the next day. Maybe they will see their significant other during that time, maybe they go out with friends, but regardless, every single day they go through the same mundane tasks. 

At the end of the day, there is one undeniable truth of High School: students are busy. Between school, extracurriculars, jobs, social lives, and more, free time is very limited. When it does appear, many turn to their phones to scroll and relax rather than cracking open a book. 

Historically, reading has always been disliked by the younger generation. If it wasn’t phones taking away from it, it was running outside doing crazy stunts. If it wasn’t that, it was all the farmwork they would have to do to provide for their family. It makes sense why reading is not everyone’s favorite form of entertainment– who wants to sit in silence and stare at words?

However, books have come a long way from the classical literature your teacher makes you read. Romeo and Juliet is dramatic, Russian literature is filled with death, and epic sonnets and poems use Old English in every line. However, if you read a modern-day book, it doesn’t have that same air. You can read for entertainment and not have your mind trying to explode from thousands of words you have never even heard of. 

Students who don’t read miss the opportunity to enter a world of fantasy where the protagonist brandishes her sword during battle with a force that seems powerful enough to cut through the pages under your fingertips; her feelings of courage mixed with struggle and fear, much like those of your own battles. 

Or maybe it is a cute romance novel, where you kick your feet in tandem with the butterflies erupting in your stomach. Where you scream at every sentence uttered by the love interest, or jump up and down at every sly smirk and joke. 

Maybe it is a realistic fiction novel, where every threat hits home, and every insult makes you reevaluate yourself. It could be sad, the words breaking you from the inside out while showing you details of your own life that you have become blind to. Maybe it proves that you are worthy of everything you have shut down before, and through these characters, you can learn who you are. 

So, I ask this, try one book for fun. Try to read something interesting, something to take your mind off of everything else happening around you. Even if you are super busy, set up a book while you brush your teeth, wake up a little earlier to read a bit in the morning, or maybe sift through a few pages before your practice begins. 

You might fall in love. 

Below I listed a few books to try out for each genre. 

Have fun reading, and may it take you to a place that can become your home, and may you learn lessons you otherwise wouldn’t be able to learn.