RMST 495/520: Long Books

Hello everyone! My name is Annabelle, and I am a fourth-year French student. I was born in Vancouver, grew up speaking English, took French through high school, and started in FREN 301 at UBC four years ago. Being a French major is cool – I’ve gotten to try poutine downtown, analyse Québec culture through comics and even go on exchange to Paris and Lyon! Along my way, I have gotten involved beyond French with the FHIS department – and I recognised a few faces in class yesterday. I absolutely love reading; while the school year does slow me down and I do not read as much as I used to, I feel very grateful to have not “fallen out” of reading. I do find I have to be more deliberate to find time to read. Some favourites of mine last year were The Awakening by Kate Chopin and American Notebooks by Marie-Claire Blais. Some favourite French books of mine are Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy. My favourite author is either Joan Didion or John Steinbeck. Or Margaret Laurence…argh! Asides from books, I love exploring, trying new things, meeting new people and learning!

For RMST 495, I am excited to prioritise reading a book that I want to read, which is pretty unique for a course. I do like long books: they are a unique experience compared to shorter books, and perhaps due to the busyness of school, more intimidating to pick up – I fear I might not remember the beginning by the time I make it to the end. This summer I had the opportunity to read Anna Karenina (about 900 pages) which was the first long book I had read in a while. It became peaceful, in that I got into the rhythm of the characters, while at times I lost patience with the parts I didn’t find interesting…not much was left to the imagination! I like that long books are renown for their length, and while I don’t believe it adds to their “worth”, it does add a sort of visible gravitas; I certainly felt like the coolest kid in Grade 9 for toting around a copy of Stephen King’s It (alas I was not). I am excited about the challenge of reading a long book during the school year. I am also so excited to have a class in English! I am an anglophone, so it is much easier to express myself in an English-speaking classroom.

For my book, I chose the French classic Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, and the Broadway show is coming to Vancouver this Spring, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to read it first (and say “umm, that wasn’t in the book” during the show…no lol don’t worry I won’t do that.) I am excited to finally read a book by Hugo and I feel like I can more confidently tell people I am a French major (this is a half joke). I picked up a copy at one of my favourite bookstores, Tanglewood Books, which I want to shoutout because it has an amazing selection of old and new as well as allies of shelves and creaky wooden floors! Plus right next door to a coffee shop? A perfect day.

Hi everyone, my name is Simi Braich! I am currently in my fourth and final year of my degree in political science here at UBC. Even though I am a political science major, and I have a separate minor as well, I have taken a couple of other RMST courses as electives, as well as other literature focused courses in different departments. I have enjoyed reading throughout most of my life, so I always look for ways to incorporate it into my life or even school routine. Outside of school, I like to read (for myself), play and watch soccer and spend time with my friends and family. I also have a pet dog named Caesar and a gecko named Jeeto and they are best friends!

This course in particular really caught my eye based on the title and description of the course, which pertains to long books. It first made me try to remember all the books I have ever read and then think about how many of them were “long”. What constitutes a book being long, is debatable, likewise to what the elements of a story should be which I find really interesting. After attending the first seminar, it solidified what I had expected the course, but it also made me familiar with other topics we would be covering in the course. I have read for many years, but I am very excited for this course because we will also be learning about the practice of reading, as well as its importance and variations which I have never really considered before. Based on the format of the seminar, I am expecting to spend a lot of time on collaboration and discussion, similar to how we did in the first class.

For my self-selected book, I have chosen Zeno’s Conscience by Italo Svevo. I have been wanting to read this book for some time, so this course has now given me a specific reason as to why I should. Based on what I have heard of the book and its plot, it reminded me a little of a play called Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. I really enjoy works that follow one central, very eclectic and/or manic main character, so I think I have picked a good book for myself. The book was written originally in Italian and I have also not read too many books from Italy, so I am also looking forward to broadening my scope.

Thank you for reading my introduction post, I’m excited to work and learn with everyone this semester!

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Lucas.

Lucas who?

That’s me! (My last name is “Hu” pronounced like “who”)

Hi everyone, my name’s Lucas and welcome to my blog for RMST 495 (or perhaps you’re reading this post on the home page for RMST 495)! I’m in my final term here at UBC as a computer science student and I’m really excited to take this course with you all! Apologies for the bad joke at the beginning, but at this point it’s kind of become my schtick whenever I introduce myself now. As this is my own blog, I’ve decided I’m going to keep my tone pretty casual as if I were writing this to a friend. I’ll try to keep the grammar or spelling mistakes to a minimum, but the main focus will be getting my fresh ideas and impressions down as soon as I finish each of the readings, as mentioned in the post about our blogs. Still, sorry in advance :p

I registered for this course a few days before this term’s start and I actually first heard about it from this Reddit post made by Professor Beasley-Murray. I have already pretty much fulfilled all my requirements for graduation so for my final term of my undergraduate degree (also possibly ever), I wanted to take some interesting electives that really differ from my usual computer science courses. Luckily I stumbled upon RMST 495 and the course description and trailer really piqued my interest! To be completely honest, I don’t read as often as I would like, or at least when it comes to “typical” books and certainly long books — I do however read a lot of manga and manhwa but I would argue that the distinction between text-based vs visual storytelling between “typical” books and manga/manhwa make the mediums and experience reading them very different from each other. Although, that’s a discussion for another day. Going back to my expectations for this term, I found that this course would be an excellent way to get invested into a couple good, long books to escape our busy world of social media filled with short-form content. Ideally, maybe I would fall in love with reading these kinds of long books and I could take that passion with me after I graduate!

The other long book that I have chosen to read alongside The Savage Detectives is 2666 by the same author, Roberto Bolaño. I’m aware that this is a very long book but I’m quite committed to reading this one specifically because I think it would be cool to read another long book by Bolaño and one of my best friends really loves this book. I think with the structure of this course, namely the weekly blog posts and discussions, as well as the fact that I’m only taking four courses this term, I’ll have tons of motivation to read these long books!

Anyhow, this is the end of my first blog. To put it like Monterroso, “Today I feel well, like a Balzac; I am finishing this blog post.”

Hello!

I’m Mason. I am currently doing my M.A. in Hispanic Studies, but before this I was a Romance Studies major here at UBC, so being in this course feels kind of like visiting home.

Like several of you, I am planning to read Our Share of Night (Nuestra parte de noche) by Mariana Enríquez alongside The Savage Detectives. I first came across this book months ago and was tempted to buy it, but ultimately decided not to; then, many weeks later, I checked the list of recommendations for long books for this course, and there it was (thanks to another student, if I understood correctly). So, I had to buy it after all. I am looking forward to reading this book for several reasons: one, I’ve been finding horror literature sort of therapeutic recently; two, I tend to enjoy dark or unusual coming-of-age stories; and three, I’m quite interested in both history and non-linear storytelling. Of course, at the moment I can only connect my reasoning to the impressions that I’ve gotten from reading the back-cover description. I imagine and hope that the story itself will give me new reasons to read on.

As far as expectations for this course, I think I mainly expect to gain a better understanding of what long and short books do — differently, similarly, and specifically. I am also hoping to engage more with the question of how people read (What are the conditions? What sense of purpose is there?), and the concept of there being “better” and “worse” ways to read (When and why did people begin to talk about this?).

I do regularly read books of various lengths, and I would say that long books have come to intimidate me less over the years. The longest book that I have read as one volume (twice) is probably Les misérables, which I love very much. (I even considered rereading it in French for this course, but I think that’s a challenge I would rather take on when I can go at a slower pace.) Other books that I consider favorites include: Maurice, by E. M. Forster; Jazz and Beloved, by Toni Morrison; Eva Luna, by Isabel Allende; The Wrong End of the Telescope, by Rabih Alameddine; and Pubis angelical and El beso de la mujer araña, by Manuel Puig. When I’m not reading or keeping up with classes, I can be found taking walks, watching movies, and using my long-suffering sourdough starter to make bread.

Hi everyone! My name is Diljot K. Ghuman and I am currently  in my fourth year. I am studying Political Science at UBC and I hope to finish my degree soon. I had initially wanted to pursue Law however, now that I’m towards the end of my degree I’m unsure if that is still the route that I would like to take. Nonetheless, I love what I am currently studying as it keeps me up to date with what is happening all around the world and the new policy’s being proposed.

A bit about me is that I was born and raised in Surrey and I grew up playing soccer for Surrey FC. Whenever I get time, I still go to Newton Athletic Park and play around with my friends. Sports have been a big part of my life and apart from soccer I have played Basketball, Volleyball, Ball Hockey for my school team throughout high school. I also used to do Karate and that is something I hope to pick up again soon. I’m currently a Screening Officer at YVR airport and I work there on the weekends. In my free time, I like to play golf and I love doing outdoor activities. I love to try out new cafes and restaurants with my friends.

I have recently started a book club in which we have monthly meetings and we try reading different genres. My favorite genre is romance and some of my favorites are Call It What You Want and Picking Daisy’s on Sundays. When I initially took this class, I thought we would be reading about romance, however, I quickly realized it is more romance literature and romance languages. This will be quite different from the readings I’m used to doing so I believe it will be challenging, however, I think it will also be fun and beneficial as I will be learning a new skill. My expectations for this class are to be able to read difficult text and actually be able to understand it. A lot of the time I’ll be reading something and I’ll have to reread it several times before I’m able to fully comprehend what the text is saying. I hope this class will help me learn skills to be able to comprehend text in the first try. Furthermore, I’m looking forward to reading the book and I like the idea of reading or getting to choose one book of your choice. The book I have chosen is The Shadow of the Wind. 

Hi!

My name is Juli, I’m a grad student at the FHIS, in the Hispanic Studies program. I did a Literary Studies program as my undergrad in the Universidad Javirana in Bogotá, Colombia, from where I am from. I have to sincere and say I do not have many expectations from this class, as in, I just don’t know what to expect! Will it be difficult to read such long books? Maybe, but I’ve read very long books too, and it is usually a blast. The last books I’ve read with such a length were the Stormlight Archives books by Brandon Sanderson, each a 1000+ pages. Last year was my second read through of the series (to catch up to the new, fifth, book).

Apart from fantasy books (I’m rereading Percy Jackson at the moment, soooo much better than Harry Potter by the way) I am interested in latin american queer literature, which is my research topic for the foreseeable future, specifically, I am mainly focused on transfemme latinamerican literature. That said, my academic interests go all over the place. Queer and gender studies is, of course, a relevant part of my interests, but I also tend towards de-colonial/post-colonial theory. Last semester I delved a little bit in sound studies because of one of my classes and I think it can be a great tool for analysis.

I’m excited to get to know all of you more throughout the semester!

Perhaps I should explain my blog title to our non-French-major friends. It’s a reference to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Reveries of the Solitary Walker, which collects his last few essays.

My name is Lily. As you know now, I’m a French major student, hoping to take a detour into Latin American literature. I chose Conversations in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa as my second book. Ban Yu, a Chinese writer and my favourite underground music critic, left a 5-star review for the book on Douban (Chinese equivalent of Goodreads + Letterboxd, but launched in 2005 before both English sites!):

Throughout the course, I expect to reconnect with the heavy physical books that hurt my wrists, especially via my hardcover Conversations in the Cathedral. Does this add more weight to the experience of reading?

*insert BEATLES singing: Boy, you gotta carry that weight…*

I’m also an extremely slow reader, so all of this is making me picture myself trudging through a muddy rainforest in thick, warm air. But hey, I actually love backpacking, so I think it’ll be a great experience.

I also planned a family trip to Mexico City for reading break, which is a perfect complement to The Savage Detectives. Notice I did not say The Savage Detectives is a complement to my CDMX trip, out of respect for this course. ^_^

Nice to meet you everyone! I’m sure many lovely conversations will be sparked between us this semester (my final one at UBC)!