Even in comparison to my 3 semesters of brain exploding math, this semester has so far been the most difficult. Not so much because of the 27 books (I'm an English major, I love books), but more so just because of...life...and death...and illness...and health...life. At one point I dropped a class, but another professor added a book, so it was still 27 books. If life isn't overwhelming enough, you'd think 27 books would just add to that. It did. It felt like my brain was just going non-stop, no rest for...oh my goodness...more than six months. (word of advice: DON'T ever do 10 weeks of summer school!)
BUT I've decided to focus on the best part of the 27 books: The stuff I loved reading and what I learned. So, of the 27 books, here's a list of my favorites and what I've learned:
Beowulf: If you haven't read this, your life isn't complete. It is eloquent, tedious, full of wonderful history and detail, the heroic code, with monsters and dragons. My essay prompt was to describe the heroic code in Beowulf, and I compared my son's video games to the book. Did you know that J.R.R. Tolkien worked on the translation? By the way-the book is way better than the movie.
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet: we all know how it ends. This is the first time I had read it. I love Shakespeare, he's all about the process and the details. You can get lost in his stories. I also read The Tempest-that was amazing! In the end, Prospero ends up forgiving everyone-no revenge-and the boy and girl live happily ever after.
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: I'm still reading it. It's a long book, with just tons of stuff going on. Stowe uses strong female characters, and wonderful Tom, to tell a story about slavery, the North and the South and American History. This book has made me feel ashamed of not only our American History, but also ashamed of how we humans, all equal creations of God, exact superiority and power over one another, over those who we deem as unworthy.
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvel: You know, I don't even like poetry, but this poem just cracked me up! This poem is the epitome of what a guy will say to seduce a girl. I enjoyed it so much I wrote an essay on it. Everyone will tell you that this poem is all about "carpe diem" or "seize the day." Eh, whatever. I don't think that was Marvel's intention when he wrote it. I think he just knew what to say to get lucky.
The Dream of the Rood: an ancient poem about Christ's crucifixion from the perspective of the cross. It is powerful! The professor gave us a passage from the Gospels to compare the poem to, which gave me the opportunity to discuss it with a fellow classmate who had never even opened a bible before-it was such a blessing! Read it, you'll cry.
27 books later, I am ecstatic to finally have a break. I've been sleeping better, and I feel like this humongous weight has been lifted off of my brain. I even watched the movie "27 Dresses" thinking maybe there's some comparison with my 27 books I could blog about. Nope, I don't want to think that hard.
Besides, I need to prepare for next semester: 16 books.
Hi Paula - did you ever post a complete list of all 27 books? I'm interested in seeing which ones they are. Enjoyed reading your comments, I recall all too well, the brain frying effect of college! And I'm daring to return for my masters. Eeeks... am I nuts? Smile.
ReplyDeleteKitty
Hi Kitty-I didn't post the whole list just because some of them are textbooks: Keywords for Children's lit, British lit, etc...Some of the books were children's and young adult literature: Romeo and Juliet, Diary of Anne Frank, My Swordhand is Singing, The Nation, Chains. And then there's American Lit books: Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, Common Sense, Self Reliance, The Last of the Mohicans, Nathaniel Hawthorne's collection. That's all I can think of right now. I was able to sell 22 of them back to the book store-felt so good!
ReplyDeleteAnd, NO, you are NOT NUTS! Go get your Master's! If you really want to go back to school, then do it!