Redhawk Book Challenge reignites students’ love of reading

The+Redhawk+book+challenge+is+going+on+until+the+end+of+September.+The+focus+is+reading+as+many+books+as+possible+by+the+end+of+the+challenge.

Prachurjya Shreya

The Redhawk book challenge is going on until the end of September. The focus is reading as many books as possible by the end of the challenge.

Sankeertana Malakapalli, Guest Contributor

Students on campus have the opportunity to participate in the Redhawk Book Challenge, which focuses on reading as many books as they can by the end of September.

“The Redhawk Book Challenge is something I decided that I wanted to do this month, just to kind of get kids to read more,” librarian Chelsea Hamilton said. “So, the book challenges that I’ve done in the past have been about specific topics or ideas or reading lists or whatever, but I wanted to open it up to anything of interest, just to see how many you could read in a month.”

To participate, all students need to do is check out up to five books from their library, and get their book signed off.

“I have a stack of the, like, checklist cards, the signature cards on the circulation desk,” Hamilton said. “So, anytime you check out a book, I will sign off on it, or stamp it off, and it’ll all go towards your total.”

For senior Anika Rampalli, president of the campus book club, having the freedom to read at your own pace and choose whatever books you want is very appealing.

“I really like the challenge mainly because we get to read any book that we want,” Rampalli said. “And also we can take it at our own pace. We could read 25 books in a week or spread it out over the month.”

But in freshman Medha Pedaprolu’s eyes, this challenge is an opportunity for her to try new genres, find new books, and expand her horizons, book-wise.

“I used to only pick out of the realistic fiction section, and I thought this library wasn’t too interesting because their realistic fiction section was honestly quite small,” Pedaprolu said. “But after this challenge kind of happened, I’ve kind of started picking more books from this library and instead of realistic fiction, I’ve gone to mystery, fantasy. I haven’t hit romance yet.”

For Hamilton, though, the ultimate goal of this challenge is to show students that reading books doesn’t always have to be a chore.

“Reading does not always have to be very serious and have an academic goal attached to it. And that what I found thus far is that students who have, who are reading graphic novels or manga have, they’re like, rockin through those,” Hamilton said. “Reading is fun, and sometimes if you give yourself a goal, you’ll be surprised at how much you can do.”