Dragons and knights, aliens and technology, heroes and villains, gods and monsters. Worlds upon worlds gather in books and stories, each telling a different tale, more wondrous than the last. Books lead pathways into different places, escapes from our reality, and a window into another, a window which we can watch and use our imagination to think of wonderful places and action-packed adventures. Books go way beyond simple words on paper and take people for a thrilling ride across different fantasies.

During quarantine, finding a way to spend your free time can be challenging because it is getting colder outside. One thing you can do is pick up a book and start reading.

It can be challenging to figure out what book you should start with. According to npr.org, books that have been made into popular movies like “Lord of the Rings,” “The Hunger Games” or “Harry Potter” are good places to start.

Sometimes veering away from the action packed novels is a better route for you. “I recommend ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,’ by Sherman Alexie. It’s a pretty easy read and isn’t too long, but it was quite fun to read for a day or so. It packs in a lot of humor and emotion for its size, and is absolutely worth reading,” junior Spencer Golub said.

If you’re looking for a genre, there are different and diverse categories to look into. Reading books in the genre that you like can make a book more enjoyable. Sophomore Lydia Wang enjoys horror and mystery novels, while freshman Joelle Hounyovi enjoys romance novels.

A few of the books that you encounter, you may not enjoy as much. As Golub said, “I’m much more likely to stop reading a boring book halfway through if it’s longer, as most of the time I’m willing to endure a shorter uninteresting book.”

Books can have certain aspects that make it uninteresting or boring, while some may find certain aspects entertaining. “I don’t like cliches. For example, if someone were writing a murder plot there better not be a hundred plot twists,” Wang said.

There are elements in books that make the book worth reading. Hounyovi enjoys “specific details in a book that help with my imagination.”

Imagination helps with reading books, and the more specific a detail, the more you can imagine. “I love it when there is a problem that seems so insurmountable and then suddenly little by little things work out and the protagonist scrapes through,” Golub said.

Reading can pass the time during quarantine. As Golub said, “There’s been a lot going on in the world this year and almost every time I watch the news or go on social media I’m reminded of it all. For me, readings have been an opportunity to escape all of the bad and forget where I am for a while.”