It actually feels kind of unreal that this is the last post because I swear I was just complaining about having to read a book a week and now I’m lowkey sad it’s over. Like why did this class trick me into becoming someone who enjoys reading consistently. I didn’t expect that at all. What started as “okay let me just get this done” slowly turned into me actually looking forward to reading because it felt like a break from everything else while still being productive, which is honestly the best kind of break.
If there is one book that genuinely stayed with me, it’s The Impatient. That book did not let me relax for a second. It was honestly frustrating to read at times because of how suffocating everything felt, especially with the idea of munyal being pushed so heavily onto women. The whole concept of being told to just be patient no matter what, even when that patience is clearly harming you, was so hard to sit with. What made it hit even more was how real it felt. As someone who is Indian, I couldn’t help but think about how similar expectations exist in my own culture, especially for older generations like my grandmothers. Obviously not in the exact same way, but the idea of endurance, sacrifice, and silence being expected from women is not unfamiliar at all. That made the book feel less like a distant story and more like something that reflects real patterns across different cultures.
Throughout the course, I started noticing that a lot of the books were less about big dramatic plots and more about the pressure people feel from their environments. It’s not always loud or obvious, but it’s there in the way characters make decisions, the way they limit themselves, or the way they are treated by others. In The Impatient, that pressure is very visible and direct, but in other books it shows up in quieter ways, like through relationships or internal struggles. It made me realize how much people are shaped by what surrounds them, even when they think they are making their own choices.
Something else I actually really appreciated was hearing everyone else’s perspectives. It’s kind of crazy how the same book can feel completely different depending on who is reading it. There were so many times where someone pointed out something I didn’t even notice, and it made me rethink the entire story. It really proved that reading isn’t just about what’s on the page, it’s about what you bring to it.
I’ll be honest, not every book was my favourite and some of them I definitely struggled to get through (shoutout to Combray) but even those had something to offer. And then there were books like The Impatient that genuinely stuck with me and made me think long after I finished them.
Overall, this class didn’t just make me read more, it made me more aware of what I’m reading and why it matters. I’m probably not going to keep up a book a week because that was a lot, but I do want to keep reading in a way where I actually engage with it instead of just trying to finish. If anything, this course showed me that stories can be uncomfortable, frustrating, and still incredibly important, and that’s probably what I’m going to take away from all of this.