From May to July is not a very long time but, given that time to read 30,000 pages, it’s not nearly long enough. Not unless one is an avid reader like Destry Cravens.

Destry read that tremendous number of pages with great ease and much pleasure and was rewarded Wednesday with the Top Reader Award in the Troy Public Library’s 2009 Summer Library Program.

“Participation in the 2009 Summer Reading Program was outstanding,” said Teresa Colivn, children and young adults librarian. “Thirty-thousand pages is an incredible number of pages to read during a summer reading program. Destry is a dedicated reader, and we congratulate him. But what is just as incredible is that our second place reader, Devon Corbett, read nearly 30,000 pages, too. For two young people to be that close and to have read that many pages is really amazing.”

The third place reader for the 2009 Summer Library Program was Miles Cameron, who also has an appetite for a good book that is hard to satisfy.

“Those who compete for the top reading awards must read age appropriate books,” Colvin said. “They cannot read books that are below their age and grade level. When they complete a book, they give me the title of the book and the number of pages and we keep a record. The one who reads the most pages is the winner.”

Destry is no stranger to reading awards. As a seventh-grader at Charles Henderson Middle School, he won the class reading award and is an award-winning reader at Goshen High School.

“I read all the time,” he said. “I watch a little television, but I’d rather read. When you read, you can let your imagination run. Reading is just more fun.”

Destry prefers fantasy books, especially Harry Potter books and, as much as he enjoys reading, he’s not interested in writing so he’ll be content to remain a reader with no aspirations to write books.

Devon, however, enjoys writing, and the writing style of the different authors is of interest to her.

“Lately, I’ve started to learn about the process of writing and that makes reading even more interesting,” she said.

“I mainly read fantasy and science fiction. And, if I hear about a person that I want to know more about, I’ll read their biography or autobiography. I recently read a biography of C.S. Lewis.”

Like the other summer reading award winners, Miles enjoys fantasy books but he’s not a fan of Harry Potter.

“I don’t read him,” he said. “My favorite books are the “Lord of the Rings” books. What I like about them so much is that you think you’ve got things figured out and all of a sudden everything changes and you don’t.”

The Charles Henderson Middle School seventh grader also likes to read the Lost Book Series but, when he grows up, he wants to be the one who pens the words for others to read.

“That’s what I want to be … a writer,” he said.

William White, TPL director, congratulated the top winners in the 2009 Summer Library Program and expressed appreciation to all the young people who made reading a preferred summer activity.