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Writer's pictureCHS Journalism

Reading 101

Updated: Nov 1, 2022

By Karen Perez, Staff Writer | September 28th, 2022



“Money doesn’t buy happiness” they say. Well, let’s agree to disagree.


The only reason this can be debunked is because money buys books and books bring a

whole lot of happiness. That’s why millions of book lovers are in debt; we buy books

when we have no money for them.


Approximately 900 million book copies are sold each year, overall. In this month alone,

approximately 62.58 million books were sold, alongside hundreds of books that were

published.


Reading brings a sense of happiness and enjoyment to many people.


Carson High School senior Kayla Alvayero stated, “I enjoy reading for multiple reasons.

I use books as an escape from my own reality. Sometimes I don’t want to deal with my

problems, so I just read. Also, I’m a hopeless romantic so I much rather read about

romantic love stories and the build ups instead of trying to experience it.”


Reading is anything but boring, it brings excitement, rage, sadness, heartbreak and

many other emotions. Reading opens a door to all sorts of things, one being imagination

and perspective. From whatever genre you desire, you-the reader, make it meaningful.

“Reading gives me a new sense of perspective, whether it be on topics about life,

romance, or anything really. Each book has at least one line that makes you think. I love

that it can make you reflect on your own life through a different perspective. With

reading you can think through the brain of the narrator rather than your own in a sense,”

said CHS junior Dhamar Garica, “I popped out of the womb with a book in my hand.”


Just like how water has a different taste depending on what brand you buy, so do

people when it comes to their taste in books.


Reading is a tricky thing to do because no matter how much you love reading, if you

have no interest in a book there is a very high chance you will not read nor finish the

book. As a reader, it’s important to learn what you love to read, whether you are an

annotated reader or not. It sounds cheesy but it's true-you need to know yourself as a

reader in order to really enjoy reading.


Dhamar said, “I would tell them to start with romance and then expand genres or just tell

them to do their own research because everyone has VERY different taste in books.

Plus, who doesn’t love a good romance story?”


It's difficult to know where to start and with what book. If you ask different readers for

book recommendations, they can give you hundreds of different books expanding from

all sorts of genres, but the chance of you liking all of those is very unlikely, which is normal. Reading, overall, is something that is meant for you to explore and discover on your own.


To start us off this year in reading splendor, here are our Top 5 Recommended Books:

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, The Love Hypothesis and Love On The Brain

written by Ali Hazelwood because they are very simple romance/rom-com books that

have been highly suggested by various people. If you prefer to start with a chapter

series then opt for fantasy, A Curse so Dark and Lonely series is a good starter that

keeps you at the edge of your seat which also has an enemies to lovers trope. A

personal favorite that is highly A Good Girls Guide to Murder series. It has a partner in

crime tropes, and this is the series that made me fall in love with reading again. Other

popular mystery series are, One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus, The Inheritance

Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.


New books to come out this month are: ‘Love On The Brain by Ali Hazelwood, a

romance novel, released in 2022. In the books website it describes the book as “a

STEMinist rom-com where a scientist is forced to work on a project with her

nemesis–with explosive results, it has an enemies to lovers trope.”


Solito: A Memoir, by Javier Zamora and released on September 6, 2022, is about his

(Javier Zamoras) adventure on a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El

Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border.


The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh-the books website states that this

story follows a “three generations of Duong family, ruthlessly cursed through

generations to marry poorly and only have daughters. Orange Counts Little Saigon -

Mai Nguyen (Duongs current descendant) visits a psychic who predicts that, in the

following year, a funeral, a marriage and the birth of a son will happen in her family. This

prophecy will reunite estranged mothers, daughters, aunts and cousins.”


Fairy Tale by Stephen King “is an epic quest novel with a golden-haired hero and his

beloved pooch who save cursed people from an even more cursed villain,” according to

their website.


Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong, is expected to be released on September 27, 2022.

It follows the story of “a series of murders that are causing unrest in Shanghai, and the

Japanese are under suspicion. Rosalinds new orders are to infiltrate foreign society and

identify the culprits behind the terror plot before more of her people are killed,”

according to their official website.


Reading is viewed as boring and nerd-like, but its also many other things, enjoyment,

entertainment and an escape. No matter the genre or the author, books bring overall

happiness, and the month of September brings a lot of happiness.


An extensive list of books include:


1. Lucy by the Sea: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout

2. The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

3. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

4. Rebound by Kwame Alexander

5. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

6. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire

Saenz

7. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

8. The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

9. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

10. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

11. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

12. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

13. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

14. Hired to Love by Jordan Lyde

15. His Light, Her Darkness by Rocc Cloud

16. Killers Of A Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

17. Maze Runner by James Dashner

18. Divergent by Veronica Roth

19. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

20. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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