Meet Lydia Mathis, English Major Extraordinaire

Lydia Mathis is an English major who can often be found with her nose in the book. She hangs out a lot in the Center for Writing and Speaking, where she’s a tutor. She agreed to join Her Campus for an interview about her life as an English major and her love for books.

HC: Why’d you decide to major in English?

LM: Because I like to read, and it’s the only thing that interested me enough to take more than one class in it, besides stuff about aliens. And I started reading in middle school, so I thought this would be a good way to force people to read what I want them to read. I want to be an English professor so I can force them to read what I like!

HC: What sort of books do you like?

LM: I read a lot of young adult fiction, but I’m starting to move more towards contemporary fiction, just regular old people fiction. Because you know, YA’s becoming really cliche, and I can’t live with cliche.

HC: What YA cliche do you hate the most?

LM: I really don’t like the love triangles. They bother me to no end. I don’t like reading high school YA because their problems are ridiculous and the book makes a huge deal out of them when they can be easily solved by just talking to the other person! And when YA uses cliche phrases that have been used a million times. That’s why I’m starting to like science fiction because it forces authors to create a world, and they have to put more effort into its creation.

HC: So what’s your favorite science fiction book?

LM: It’d have to be The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. There’s so many good ones though!

HC: I know you’ve taken a lot of classics classes…

LM: I’m a Classical Civilizations minor.

HC: What’s your favorite thing about Classics?

LM: I’ve always really enjoyed mythology, and that’s why I initially really liked Latin because I thought it was cool and mystical. But now I’m just trying to finish out the minor because Latin is hard! But I really do like taking the Classics Civilization courses.

HC: Who’s your favorite Greek god?

LM: I’ve never given much thought to this! I should. Well, I guess I would have to go… Athena’s really awesome, but if we’re going by the Roman names, I’d have to go with Mars because my favorite planet is Mars.

HC: What’s a story you really want to read but haven’t found yet?

LM: I mean, I have never thought of a story I really want to read. Usually, I think of a scene I want the writer to expand on. So I want to write that scene and expand on what the author’s said.

HC: Sounds a bit like fan fiction…

LM: I know! And then it’s funny because I’m so against fan fic. But it is what it is. But sometimes it’s like, but what actually happened here!

HC: What TV show are you watching now?

LM: I started watching this game show called Divided. It is so awesome, so amazing. And I started rewatching Numbers again because it’s so fun. But The Voice is coming back in a week or two so I’m excited for that!

HC: Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?

LM: I feel that I should mention (because it’s basically sacrilege if I don’t) that my favorite book of all is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. That is integral to my book lover identity!

HC: Thanks, Lydia!

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