One thing that has made me smile is this blog; I post links to the blog on both of my facebook accounts, so I have a few students that read from time to time, and a few have even left comments (don't think they go unnoticed, kids). I love when I see that my kiddos respond to a blog about books, which they spent most of the time in my classroom complaining about. The fact that my darling Thomas (yes, you) told me he read an entire series of books (The Hunger Games) makes me even more excited to read them. That and the very drunk girl who came into work last night (her name was Lisa, we're besties now, according to her) and talked at length about how much she loves those books even though she hates reading. Mostly I love that a handful of my students give me book recommendations. I had a facebook message the other day from a former student, now graduated, with a quote from a book that used one of our vocabulary words. I responded, and we've been conversing through email about this book. He's really into it, and I love seeing former students (really, any teenager) find and engage with a book.
My reading for class this week is two short stories, "The Cask of Amontillado" and "Young Goodman Brown," both stories I read in high school and then worked with in various ways in college classes. Our focus is on different types of reading. There are three for our purposes:
- Casual
- Critical
- Pedagogical
Am I getting too philosophical about reading? Probably.
Really, it's because I'm still working through my study of Post-Structuralism and what it means to be a reader of a text. Sometimes I hate learning things like this because I get very cognitive about my reading process and find it hard to just READ. Anyway, we're reading the two short stories looking at these three types of reading processes, and I just find myself getting so distracted by all the other things I've done with these stories. It makes me feel pretentious because I do feel like I have an advantage when it comes to Poe; he was the focus of my senior sem, after all, and he is totally my dead literary boyfriend (I think he'd like that, since he was in to the beauty of dead women). But all this study of criticism is clouding my perspective on things.
So here's my new experiment for the next book on my list, Memoirs of a Geisha. I hope my students are reading this, because they'll love it. I'm going to actively read the crap out of the book, really paying attention to my own personal process of reading. How does the literary theory fit in, and how much of my reading is casual, critical, or -- because I can never shake being a teacher -- pedagogical?
I'll be sure to get back to you ASAP. For now, I'm looking for more book recommendations to keep my list growing, and I'm working on my other blog project. It should be up for the initial viewings soon, so I'll put a link up when it's ready to roll. Back to Post-Structuralism and the damn French literary critics. Diana and Pauline are the only Frenchies I will ever love, it seems...
I was mentioned! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd "The Cask of Amontillado" you made us read when you taught me GP Lit. <-- AWW what a fun class. I stinctly remember when Tyler read who read his book last and the name was "Mike Hunt" LMAO. It took several people a while to understand it. Winters Mill Class of 2012 Wants you back! Mrs. Bowen isn't as fun of a teacher as you and you're taller than she is.
Aunt Peggy and I were actually just talking about reading. I logged onto your blog because she says she hasn't ever been able to figure out how to find it (I'm on her computer, and put it in her Favorites list). I then read your latest post, and thought I'd share what she and I were discussing: How do we pick the books we read? For instance, I'd say I occasionally remember a review I've read when I'm actually at B&N or the library, sometimes I've been sold on a book from a friend, but more often than not I just browse. As you know, though, I like a lot of non-fiction (when I do read fiction I am looking for a "sitcom" and am not picky in my mindless entertainment), which I think makes it a lot easier. I have my short list of sections/topics I visit and I just look through books. Fiction, though, is much harder. At the library, for example, there are rows and rows of fiction organized by nothing more than the placement of the author's last name in the alphabet. At least in non-fiction, because it's so clearly organized into neat, specific topics. I can hit up my faves (love most of the 100s and 300s) and quickly scan a few rows of things in the area of interest).
ReplyDeleteHow do you do this with fiction? Do you just pick a letter and browse that row? Or do you have to rely more on recommendations from others? Are there lists (other than yours here) you regularly peruse, such as NYT's bestsellers?
Nice use of paragraph breaks there, huh? Oops...hope it doesn't make it feel like a rambling run-on sentence.
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