Abstract Reading interest, in addition to reading skills, is crucial for students if they want to be successful readers. The condition of low reading interest among students has been a major issue that needs a creative follow-up from scholars, teachers and practitioners. This study aims to explore the development of students’ reading interest in relation to their participation in independent readingretelling activity as part of independent learning activity in a particular course they took. Seventyfive students from Faculty and Teacher Training Education of Universitas Lambung Mangkurat, Indonesia, were involved as the participants in this study. The students took part in independent reading-retelling activity which requires them to read novels and short stories and retell it to as well as do sharing session to discuss the stories with their partners. This activity was done out of course schedule and complemented with a journal entry to track the students’ progress. Without the purpose of assessing the students, the activity was intended to give students meaningful reading experience and to grow their reading interest. The encouragement of the lecturer was regularly given to the students to keep up their reading and retelling. A questionnaire was used to collect data on their reading interest and their perception on the influence they feel from the activity. This study showed that the students’ reading interest was at medium level with several positive reading behaviors. From the students’ perception, the activity has given them positive influence on their vocabulary growth, reading comprehension, self-quality development, and reading interest. Keywords: independent reading, reading, reading interest, retelling activity