Summer reading for freshmen: no regrets

"Oh, man!" was Emily Orr's first reaction when the Evansville woman found out she had to read a book before her freshman college year even started. "Homework already?" Orr, who will be a sophomore at the University of Evansville this year, had no regrets once she cracked open The Kite Runner.

"At the end of it, I came to my mom and said, 'You need to read this book. It's going to change your life,'" Orr recalled.

Evansville, like many area colleges, requires all incoming freshmen to read the same book as preparation for the new school year. "It's quite an old idea," said Paula Dehn, vice president of academic affairs at Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Kentucky, which has the same requirement. "It's an idea that's come back around. High schools are doing it, too." Read more in The Evansville Courier & Press online.