Hi Romance Studiers,

This is the last Ellie post of all time! Throughout this semester, I have been reflecting on an internal issue of mine that is somewhat relevant to my feelings towards the course. One of my favourite non-curricular activities is writing, whether that be songs or poems, I just love to write. Despite this, the last project I released was in May of 2022, that was two years ago. The last verse I wrote was over six months ago. All of this has made me wonder, at what point can I no longer call myself a writer? If that project was my last, in five years am I still an artist? How can I still call it a hobby of mine if I haven’t participated in such a long time, and will there be a point when the disconnect between my life and that world becomes too wide to say I am a member? All this to say that, the lines drawn to claim status of an activity enjoyer is blurred.

Why this question intrigued me in regards to this course is because I do not consider myself a reader. Years prior, I would maybe knock out a book once every year or two, but I was never a consistent reader. I hate to admit it but I enjoy reading for the aesthetic and to increase my lexicon. I was never one to pursue new books but would read what my close friends or teachers would greatly recommend to me because I valued their opinions. That being said, I have just read nine books over the span of four months. I have read more books front to back in this semester than I did during my five years in highschool. Which makes me wonder, am I allowed to call myself a reader? While I did not enjoy reading all the books, I definitely did read them. Is a person allowed to call themselves a reader if they only read in the context of a class? It would be a lie if I said I indulged in the activity post the academic requirement too, but after testing my ability to read I have learned and improved on those skills. Some things I learned about my reading abilities because of this course is that I read the best when there is dialogue on the page. Maybe it is because the formatting of the dialogue makes it feel like I am reading less words and going through pages more quickly, or it could be that it is easier for me to visualize the scenes when there are people speaking to each other. I also found that it does not take that long to read a couple hundred page books when you can split it up into chunks throughout the week. When I am locked in, 30-50 page reading goals are not that daunting, but 100 page reading sessions still have hands.

All this to say, I think in order to call myself a reader, I need to read some texts outside of class and try to read for fun. This class has reduced my fear of sitting and reading but it is time to take it a step further and read books that I think I will enjoy off the get go. My question for the class is, do you have any book recommendations for me? From my previous reading experience, I love me some cute little love stories (I have to be in the mood for smut so let’s keep them cute please) and stories exploring GRSJ type topics. The last two books that I really enjoyed was ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ by Ocean Vuong and ‘Patron Saints of Nothing’ by Randy Ribay. My favourite book I read from this course was (most likely due to recency bias) was ‘Money to Burn’ by Ricardo Piglia. Excited to see some of your suggestions in the comments and I loved reading everyone’s blogs throughout the semester 🙂