Reading List Questions

[poco_puffs]

Fall term doesn't start for another month at my school, but I am trying to get a head start on some of the reading for my Medieval Lit course where most of the texts are going to be in pure, unadulterated Middle English, which I can't read any faster than a six year old trying to pick through Tolstoy. I had started on one text in particular, which was listed specifically in the course description, by finding it online through the publishing company that I found out this prof. works with. This text, plus one other, was supposed to be offered in print form through the bookstore. When I went to buy the textbooks for the course, I couldn't find those specific pieces ANYWHERE in the textbooks.

The question is this: Is it ever okay to email a professor a month before school starts to ask about texts for Fall? Is that just too dang early? Will they look up from sipping their margaritas in the hammock, and scoff at my asking such a presumptuous question as "Did you update the reading load? Should I not spend any more time on these particular bits of lit?"

Adding to that, is it completely wrong or somewhat acceptable to ask for a rough draft of the reading list (humbly acknowledging that it might change)? Will I seem like a totally clueless, brown-nosing grad school noob and completely ruin my reputation before ever setting foot in the classroom? Or is it something that they're used to?

I say this knowing that I probably won't always read ahead for my courses, but she made a point in the course description that they would be moving through the Middle English at a pretty good clip. I'd like some time to get into the swing of the language and warm up my brain before jumping full bore into Fall Term. I'll be taking the course with a bunch of bona fide Medievalist PhD students, so I don't want to be the one holding back the course and making a compleeete fool of myself.

[rising_star]

Yes, it's ok to email them. If they ordered textbooks through the University bookstore, the order was due weeks or months ago. (That doesn't mean the bookstore will have them in yet, just that the professor will have made at least a tentative reading list already.) I doubt it will seem like brown-nosing or anything like that, especially not if you explain that you're hoping to improve your Middle English before the semester begins or something like that. Just make sure you get the same editions as everyone else or else things can get confusing in class.

[rachaelski]

I have not had any problem when I email professors about course texts. It's a fair way to get the feel of a course before the term begins.