I just finished reading the blog post “Top 10 Books College Students Are Reading” by Lynn O’Shaughnessy, the author of the College Solution, a blog about all things college and worth checking out! It is comforting to know that “I don’t read that much outside of class” didn’t show up on this list, and it is unsurprising that Dan Brown’s ‘The Lost Symbol’ (see carbon copy of the Da Vinci Code), ‘Dear John’ by Nicholas Sparks and Stephenie Meyer ‘s ‘Eclipse’ made the list. Though O’Shaughnessy begrudgingly proclaims “you won’t find any heavy literature on this list”, it is good to know that students are reading. This is a debate an aspiring literary scholar and close friend of mine have from time to time. He believes it is pointless to read books that have no intrinsic intellectual value, while I believe it’s not what you read, but keeping the habit of reading that is most beneficial.

Just as eating well and exercising are essential to proper physical development, reading is an essential part of mental development, and isn’t that what college is all about? So, whether you’re reading ‘War and Peace’ or the ‘Twilight’ series, keep on reading!

Here is the Top 10:

1. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

2. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

3. Nightlight: A Parody by the staff of The Harvard Lampoon

4. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

5. Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea by Chelsea Handler

6. Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan

7. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

8. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

9. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

10. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

* Survey conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education