The Final Blog Post!

Somehow, it is the final week of the semester. An entire class has slipped away and now this is the last blog I will write. I always find time flies during the last few weeks of school, but in a class like this where we have read and discussed so many texts, it’s extra odd that we’ve reached the end. If I think back to this term, or look at all the books I logged from this class on my GoodReads(!), I am very proud of myself. To be honest, I came into this class interested to learn about new novels and writers, but was very weary of my slow reading style. I had no idea how I could read so many books in 13 weeks, as just the thought of reading One Hundred Years of Solitude in two weeks seemed impossible.

I’d also like to say congratulations, I suppose, to everyone else for reading so many books and engaging with them so intently. Half the fun of reading one of these books was seeing all the differing opinions and takeaways people shared in the blogs. We created our own little community of readers, and I think I gained a lot more from these books from a) the lectures of course, but also b) the blog posts. Getting to give your own opinion of these books as opposed to being taught what to think of each book was rather freeing — though I do hold steadfast to my dislike for Borges, and no one will ever change that opinion!

This was a great class to learn about works outside my normal ‘sphere’ of reading — I thank Jon and Daniel for helping me engage in books I never had heard of, or never thought would interest me. It is classes like these that explore different parts of the world that are at the core of higher learning — expanding one’s understanding of the world and showing us just how much lies beyond our comfort zones. I feel that, though this was just an introduction, I am more familiar with Latin American texts and also political/cultural topics than I was before.

Though I chose this course as a literature requirement, I got more than just credits out of it. I truly appreciated a course that focused more on engagement and critical thought than ‘saying the right things’ and getting a high grade. While I could not have read a book every week, I challenged myself to read 8 books (which I did!) and feel proud of my blogs that I wrote. I really enjoyed the self-appointed grading system, and wish more courses didn’t put so much emphasis on marks. Look what comes out of a course like this — people enjoying literature and expressing themselves in writing! Thank you to everyone for making this class so engaging.

Question: Are there any authors in this class that you will seek out and read more of? Who, and what intrigues you about them?