Forget Books - Read Your Way
When someone tells you that you should read more, you’ve probably concluded that they’re telling you to go read Moby Dick or The Sound and the Fury or A Tale of Two Cities or another work of “real classic literature.”
We’re here to tell you: that’s not what reading has to be.
“What we really want to emphasize for teens is that reading doesn’t mean what you think it does,” said Liz Movius, a librarian at the Southeast Branch Library. “For the Summer Reading Challenge, any form of reading and literacy, whether they include print books or not, counts toward your minutes.”
So, if reading doesn’t have to mean traditional print books, then what does it mean? The answer is: it all comes down to you and what you enjoy.
Consider this: if you’re a fan of Dungeons & Dragons, or any tabletop roleplaying game where you create characters and share stories with others, you’re reading. You have to roll stats; check the game manuals for rules and tips for play; and if you’re the Dungeon Master or Storyteller, you might be writing out dialogue for your NPCs. It’s all reading.
Another example: if you are or dream of being a songwriter, or a poet, or an author, and you practice daily, you’re engaged in reading every day. Whether composing lyrics or typing out fanfiction on Wattpad, you’re processing words, deciding what comes next, and using literacy to express your creativity.
And chew on this for a minute: if you’re a huge devourer of social or other forms of online media, whether scrolling through posts on your Instagram or keeping up with a thread in your favorite subreddit, that counts as reading, too. For gamers, that time you spend reading and joining in online community discussions for games like Dark Souls or Stardew Valley works just fine.
The bottom line is this: you don’t have to read print books or even enjoy “traditional reading'' to participate in the Summer Reading Challenge. You can rack up points by doing the things you love doing every day. That’s what our theme for this year, “Press Play,” is all about.