Taylor Bolanos
LV Life Editor
Not everyone understands the rewards of reading, but students at La Verne were able to appreciate the value and fun that a good book can offer during the Campus Activities Board’s Fictional Adventure event.
In honor of National Reading Month, CAB hosted the reading-inspired trivia competition Tuesday in the Campus Center Ballroom.
Sophomore psychology major Darian Manago – CAB philanthropy chairman – and junior communications major Reanna Hilario – CAB spirit chairwoman – hosted a small but lively and interactive event.
“(Manago) brought up that March is National Reading Month,” Hilario said. “I am a huge book nerd, so this was fun for me to make.”
Manago and Hilario said they enjoyed their event’s outcome and hope to collaborate together again before the year is over.
“(My CAB position) is focused around games, recreation and spirit, and his brings awareness to National Reading Month,” Hilario said. “(Manago) and I wanted to collab on an event for the longest time, and I knew he wanted to do something related to comics.”
The main feature of the event was an intense round of Jeopardy, with questions created by the CAB chairs.
Categories included comics, books to movies, quotes, childhood classics and more.
Four teams of four or five players each yelled across the ballroom and shouted their answers or questioned if someone violated the rules.
“The questions came from a lot of my favorite books,” Hilario said. “Just like music or fashion taste, a lot of people have different tastes in books.
Answers to questions featured famous literary characters and book titles, such as “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “Twilight.” Questions about lesser known titles stumped the crowd.
Students competed in Jeopardy for bragging rights and raffle tickets for the chance to win popular books such as “Hamlet” and “Divergent,” as well as gift cards to Barnes and Noble.
The winners of the first intense round were sophomores Nick Charles, Thomas Huynh and Noah Welch.
“I’d have to give credit to my teammates,” legal studies major Welch said. “I read what I’m assigned. I wish I could read more in my free time. I listen to books on tape.”
Kinesiology major Huynh agreed each team member contributed to the win.
With a vast knowledge of children’s books, both famous and lesser known stories, Huynh helped lead the team to victory.
“(My favorite book is) ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’,” Huynh said. “It was one of the first books I really connected with in high school, especially because it shows you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”
Teammate and criminology major Charles said he prefers autobiographical nonfiction and appreciates the value of reading.
“It helps give kids a different perspective, a different point of view that they might not get in the classroom or from their peers,” Charles said.
Taylor Bolanos can be reached at taylor.bolanos@laverne.edu.
