If she wins, she hopes to use the prize money to enhance her collection with older volumes.

“I have a lot of general books, but I’d like to get specific volumes from the 1850s, when many Mexicans immigrated. They are simply not in an undergrad’s budget,” she quips.

A self-proclaimed book worm, Orta says books are her comfort.

“Both of my parents are deceased, so I live at Harvard. All of my stuff is in my room and a very important part of my stuff—a lot of memories are associated with them.”

Orta keeps about 200 books in her Leverett House dorm room, which cost her $300 to ship to Harvard initially.

Nathan Hill ’03 declared his intent to enter the contest with a collection of books on Tibet that he began in high school.

A Sanskrit concentrator, Hill is studying Tibetan and writing a thesis on Tibetan verbs.

“Ever since I was a kid, I loved owning books and when I became interested in Tibetan studies, I learned that the books in the discipline tend to be printed in small runs and [to be] expensive,” he says.

“Widener doesn’t have a lot of these books,” he says, “so I feel I’m doing a service to humanity by collecting them.”

He says he hopes to use the prize money to buy more books or to help pay for a graduate school degree in Tibetan studies.

Alex Lemann ’06 is entering the competition with his roughly 50-volume collection on World War II books, focused on the American soldier.

“It’s not that impressive, but I figure it will be a fun and rewarding experience to enter the contest,” he says.

For Lemann, collecting and reading books comes naturally.

“Basically, my collection is just a group of books I bought over the years because I thought they looked interesting—I never really thought of it as a collection before I saw the poster for the contest,” he says.