Hi everyone! I am Maya but I named this blog “Page Pioneer” to lean into the silliness I feel for some reason about running a blog. I am a psychology major and so I haven’t dappled in too many English courses in university, other than those for requirement. However, I enjoyed English class quite a bit in high school, always raising my hand and pondering on others’ ideas. That said, I am by no means a “reader” (as we discussed and contemplated in class). By that I mean that I almost never pick up a book because I want to read. Instead, the activity of reading is always instigated by school or some other external pressure. One reason for this is because I am a slow reader and an antsy one. I often find myself getting distracted by how I am sitting or some noise or light in the room. Often, I even get distracted by finding shapes in the negative space between words in the text, which may sound quite bizarre to some of you. Further, when I read, I find myself imagining the entire scene, painting out the backdrops and sculpting every crease in the characters before feeling engaged with the text. Due to this, it takes a great deal of time and imagination for me to finally get “lost” in prose. Furthermore, when I misread a line, I find myself circling on it for tens of minutes, or researching every word that puzzles me– even if it is one I am familiar with. When I do read though, I find that I quite enjoy it! The main huddle between me and becoming a “reader” is I lack the time to spare in my life to properly devote my attention and care to a novel the way that I want to.

My expectation for this course is that I will be reading… a LOT. I am prepared to read more in these next three months than I have in the last two or three years combined. Although this is daunting to me, I am quite exhilarated. I love how there is no pressure on my quality of interpretation or formulation of ideas, but that the course is structured solely on my consumption of the material. I am thrilled to dive into a genre I have not often read in, and especially from authors I may have never heard of. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone in the class, and all the characters and storylines in the books! Most of all, however, I am excited to become a “reader”!