March is recognized as National Reading Month, and it’s a popular event occurring in many schools, but it is celebrated differently everywhere. The school’s library is providing a few opportunities to promote the event and get more students to read. 

  “There are two different things students can participate in for March is Reading month. [The first one is] a book that they read, they fill out a little form and they can give it a rating and they just say if they liked it and they can recommend it, and then we pull the book and put their suggestion and rating with it [in the library], or they can read a book and do alternative covers. There is a lot of horrible book art out there, so improve the cover, or maybe it is a good cover, but they read it and just felt they could do a better job of the book. So, maybe more of an artsy kind of a project or just a review,” West librarian Genevieve Minor said. 

  By being able to recommend books and draw new covers for their books, the library is doing multiple things to get their students reading. If a student does not want to participate in that, but they do want to read, there are good ways to get in the habit of reading. 

  “To get into reading, I would try to find a specific genre that you would like, and I think that would be helpful,” junior Jalee Dunklow said. 

  Finding a good book is a great start to getting into reading. A lot of people use the app “Good Reads” to find book genres and new books to read, but sometimes it is more about the stamina and the consistency of reading the book a few minutes each day. 

  “I would say that if you are truly interested in reading, you do not have to sit down and read a book for four hours, you know. I would say that habits are something that take about three weeks to really get into, so even if it is just [reading] five minutes before you go to bed, you know that’s what I do, as I get into bed, reading kind of calms my mind and helps me get ready to go to sleep. Sometimes it helps me fall asleep. It is more of a relaxing time because there is so much going on and it is hard to just stop and read in the middle of the day,” Minor said. 

  For many it takes a lot to be motivated to read, but in order to read, the person must make time to continue their stamina. Often, a lot of people try to read in their free time, so reading after dinner, before bed, on the weekends and on any breaks from school, but they may have work or sports that take up that time instead. 

  “I mostly read the books that I want to during the summer because I don’t have required readings or lots of homework to do,” Dunklow said. 

  The summer is a great time to get reading done and gives students time to read all the books they want before all of the stress comes with school. However during the school year, reading before bed is another option that a lot of students like to take as some personal time apart from their social life. 

  “I try to read whenever I have time, I mostly try to read before bed when I can. I have probably only read 3 [to] 4 books this year so far,” sophomore Lucy Jones said.