Can you write your college essay about a book?

AAn admissions reader's whole job is reading closely and judging prose, and many readers came to the work because they loved literature, as did the faculty they choose students for. An essay about books, writers, words or ideas therefore reaches an audience already inclined to care, and people like people who share their pleasures.

In the Harvard admissions trial, testimony described an admitted student whose essays made plain that he loved books and ideas. He had also started a reading club with friends, named after the James Joyce novel they began with, and what stayed with the committee was his enthusiasm for talking about the book with other students. Reading was something he did with people, out loud, by choice. Many applicants hear a story like that and reach for a reading essay of their own. The topic has a trap built into it.