It’s crazy to think that this semester is almost over and that I’ve basically read a book for almost every week of this year so far. I have to admit that I didn’t join this class for any great or noble reason like some others, rather it was a suggestion from a friend that it would be a good experience and more importantly a good grade. However, I knew it would be challenging for me to read so much given that I had dropped reading years ago, and I typically found it boring or too complicated.
After signing the contract I told myself to keep an open mind and maybe on a small off-chance I would like to read again, like I did in elementary school. I remember after the first week and after reading Combray that I was not very optimistic for the rest of the year. Even now I think it’s my least favorite of the books in this course, just because of its complex style of narration and minimal direction or true purpose of the plot (in my opinion). The weeks that followed however there were many books I enjoyed very much, especially The Hour of the Star, which I felt had the right balance of quirkiness and serious commentary. The blogs often left me with a pretty severe writing block at first, but it became smoother as the course went on, and something that let me pause and think about the life I just lived through the narrator. Commenting was another thing I didn’t really see the point in, as I thought it was just forced class engagement like most classes require. Over time I realized that people in this class have very profound thoughts and other times were just funny or very very passionate. Picking a blog to comment on became sort of like a lottery of sorts, maybe I would stumble upon a great blog or one that just hated on a character a lot. I liked getting to comment and relate to other people and it also made me want to write better blogs as to not be worse than everyone else.
I think in many ways I appreciate reading a lot more after this course and it’s something more than something I have to do for school. This course was challenging but it also made me encounter ideas like death, identity, and sexual desire when I otherwise wouldn’t. Overall I think the things I didn’t like about this class or I thought were tedious turned out to be really meaningful to me, and I would definitely say that this class was worth the time and effort it requires. 5/5
“The blogs often left me with a pretty severe writing block at first, but it became smoother as the course went on, and something that let me pause and think about the life I just lived through the narrator.“ It’s very curious that you mention it, because I think that writing is very similar to playing sports, you have to practice to make it easier… and at the same time you set yourself challenges to overcome. I hope you continue to practice reading for pleasure! Have a fun summer 🙂
Hey Jon! Great blog as usual. I feel the exact same way about Combray- the writing really was all over the place. Additionally, I really enjoyed reading other blogs as well- a lot of people had really entertaining and really thought provoking opinions all the time. I think that such is the beauty about not having a stern guide about what we are suppose to write- people actually take it further themselves than if we were only given a guideline. I’m glad you also enjoyed the themes of this class- at first I also thought they were odd but grew to appreciate their peculiarity over time.