blog#12 – concluding thoughts —
Man. I read a lot of books this year, and it’s only april.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever take a course like this again. Not because I didn’t like it but because I’m not sure what to call this kind of class, or where to find it. (Other than here obviously). This course was definitely a refresh and relief from the other kind of courses I’m more used to – albeit, the refresh is pretty heavy sometimes because of all the books.
It was really interesting and sometimes a bit eye-opening to be able to read books from different parts of the world, as well as garner context in those time periods. Before this course, I would have been too lazy to do an intensive wiki search but this course has forced me to, and for the better. It took my understanding to a much more factual level than it had been before. Especially with reading books from such different times and places.
Another thing this course has forced me to do, is to read a book in its entirety. If I’m reading a book that doesn’t necessarily snap my attention, I’m very inclined to just put it down and eventually forget about it. And so, when in the course when I was chose to read these books, and I happened to not like them, I had to continue on reading.
Not to say that I didn’t enjoy reading most of the books, I really found some of them amazing. The Passion According to G.H. and The Society of Reluctant Dreamers are my two favourites out of all of them that I’ve read. Which I think is an interesting choice because Agualusa references Clarice Lispector in his book.
I also really appreciated the routine of this course. There was a sense of responsibility in my deadlines, partially because I had chosen my deadlines, and otherwise because I actually did want to read most of the books. There was a kind of eb and flow in ritual that this course structure provided, and I quite liked it. It felt like… a really formal bookclub.
so, what was the book you hated? and what was the one you loved?