For self-professed bibliophiles, moving to college comes with a specific kind of heartbreak: leaving behind piles of books you can\u2019t bring with you from home. Many Grand Valley State University students had to pick their favorites, from realistic fiction novels to trending BookTok romances, making their dorm or apartment shelves packed full.<\/p>\n
With temperatures dropping and leaves changing, readers like freshman Addison Franz are ready to embrace cooler temperatures by curling up inside with a good book. Franz said she intentionally brought with her fall and winter reads, leaving behind books that remind her of summer, as well as packing plenty of fresh reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to bring books I hadn\u2019t read yet, but knew I would want to (read) at some point,\u201d Franz said. \u201c(But) I also brought a couple of books that I have read before and love because they\u2019re comforting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since housing space on campus is limited, Franz said she utilizes apps and online platforms like Audible and Kindle Unlimited, which give her a reading outlet that she may not be able to access in physical form with her limited shelf selection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can read on my iPad, phone (or) Kindle,\u201d Franz said. \u201cI also have an Audible subscription, so I\u2019ll listen to books while driving. I can read almost anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Franz added she was very strict with the number of books she brought with her to campus to avoid overpacking, but that doesn\u2019t keep her from missing books she left behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t read a physical book in so long, but I honestly want to,\u201d Franz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not wanting to miss any of their reads back home, some students opted for overpacking in favor of leaving any of their precious books behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI took all of them (my books) because they\u2019re like my babies,\u201d said freshman Grace Mitchell. \u201cThey\u2019re like trophies to me, a reminder of all the different experiences I\u2019ve had through reading.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To fit her entire book collection in her small dorm room, Mitchell said she brought a bookshelf from home that stacks vertically like a tree next to her desk.<\/p>\n
Senior Riley Smith hasn\u2019t had to worry as much lately about packing and moving, but this doesn\u2019t mean she has been able to keep her full collection intact.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely had to narrow down my choices because I had a lot of books,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI always try to keep a lot of short-story books too, because I think short stories are such a cool way to be able to express how creative someone can be in such a short amount (of writing).\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith added it can be a disheartening process to weed out books that have sentimental value. Curating a bookshelf filled with meaningful books and intriguing works that can pique students\u2019 interest helps entertain while also building literary diversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept books that I found a part of me in, something I liked to learn about (or) something I thought could be useful in my future,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For self-professed bibliophiles, moving to college comes with a specific kind of heartbreak: leaving behind piles of books…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":299940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-299939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115366944512783984","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}