Vedika Kumar:

Looking to find more enemies to lovers storylines, senior Vedika Kumar made a transition from being a science fiction lover to a romance one. She started reading romance novels at the beginning of 2023. The first memorable romance book she read was Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas.

The interactions between the characters and the book being the first of her romance novel obsession, made it her favorite.

“The banter between the characters is so refreshing and also since it was the first book I read, it will always have a special place in my heart,” Kumar said.

Some of her favorite authors include Ana Huang, Elena Armas and Ali Hazelwood.

Kumar feels that compared to romance movies, romance novels are more thorough.

“I feel like they are more in-depth and you feel all the emotions of the characters more strongly. I think that movies just don’t have enough time to create the same impact that a book does,” Kumar said.

Compared to all the other genres she has read, Kumar ultimately chooses to read more romance.

“They’re light and most of the time they have a happy ending. I also feel like the plots are more centered around the characters than external things so you have more of an opportunity to ‘fall in love’ with a character,” Kumar said.

From the start of 2023 to Sept. of 2023, Kumar has estimated that she has read over 50 romance novels.

Owen Woody:

Senior Owen Woody would see himself pick out a lot of books that leaned towards science fiction when he was in middle school, and partly believes that the reason he picked those books was that his dad would also read them.

“My dad would read a lot of science fiction, so I would be influenced by him,” Woody said.

Woody finds himself watching science fiction movies and reading science fiction novels.

He started reading for fun around 6th Grade.

“I get [books] from the school library. Sometimes my dad would have books lying around that I would take and read,” Woody said.

Woody is currently reading a science fiction trilogy called Revelation Space.

“It’s written by [Alastair Reynolds], and it’s really fascinating. I’m on the second book right now, and I’m enjoying it,” Woody said.

He finds that the theoretical in science fiction books make it more fascinating for him to read.

“The author would ask a question like, ‘What if the world is this way?’ and then it kind of explores those topics of like, ‘What would happen?’ It’s very interesting to read about,” Woody said.

His love for science fiction goes beyond the books.

“I have some posters in my room, like some space stuff,” Woody said.

He states that he tries to read them whenever he can, but they are quite long.

“I haven’t actually read a lot, because a lot of them are pretty long. So I’d say like 10 to 15 science fiction books, most of them I’ve read, either like last year or this year,” Woody said.