what are you reading...?

[Boz]

Bonjour tout le monde,

Just trying to stir things up a little here in the Lit/Rhet/Comp forum! I was curious to see what you're all reading as you wait for our programs to put a merciful end to this painful anticipation that we must endure.

*Note: no, past admissions results posted online and the annals of old "Who Got In" forums do NOT count as substantive reading material!

As for me, I'm fortunate enough to have enough free time that I can indulge in reading for leisure (which, I think, is a much better way to spend my time than, say, freaking out constantly about getting into grad school...not that I don't do this, too ). At the moment I'm reading Little Dorrit, one of the few Dickens novels that I've never read. I think that reading and enjoying a book from my period has helped to reaffirm my love of all things Victorian and reminds me of why I'm putting myself through this crazy process in the first place.

However, I do look forward to stepping outside of my comfort zone and reading around in all different places. I haven't read much contemporary literature lately, so I'll probably look into that next. Any suggestions?

[purplepepper]

Not in lit. but I too am reading to pass the time--still trying to ween myself off the forum 100 times a day!

Anyway, I'm reading My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk--he won the Nobel Prize in Literature a few years ago.

It's a fantastic book set in 16th century Istanbul--a mystery about the murder of a miniaturist who was in the process of creating and illustrating a book for the Sultan in the European style. Also full of love, deceit and all of that wonderful stuff. Highly recommended!

[coho]

I'm 60 pages into Between Two Palaces (trans. from Arabic) by Naguib Mahfouz.This is the first book I've read by him.

[latenight]

I've been walking around with a copy of the Idiot in my bag, more for comfort than anything else, because it's end-of-semester time at my Master's program and I'm trying to pull some work together... just checked 3 Derrida books out from the library, they're huge, yikes.

[misterpat]

I've been walking around with a copy of the Idiot in my bag, more for comfort than anything else, because it's end-of-semester time at my Master's program and I'm trying to pull some work together... just checked 3 Derrida books out from the library, they're huge, yikes.

You should just focus on the Dostoevsky and return Derrida's pretension-laden babble-books.

[coho]

ppsh. meanie.

[katanianQ]

Rereading various Adrian Mole books for the billionth time. I don't care how 'unscholarly' they are- even upon the billionth reading, something new and hilarious jumps out at me.

[Boz]

I don't care how 'unscholarly' they are- even upon the billionth reading, something new and hilarious jumps out at me.

I think we can all afford to be a little unscholarly at this point--we have 5-7 years or so to be more scholarly than we could ever want .

[tshaunprice]

Just finished up "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Wilde and am currently reading "Journal of the Plague Year" by DeFor.

[latetothegame]

Moby Dick

[dowjonesindustrial]

/\------ The Great American Novel

I finished Naked Lunch, almost done One Hundred Years of Solitude, now onto Pale Fire and Underworld (Don's).

[katanianQ]

I've put Adrian Mole aside for the time being and am working my way through John Taylor Gatto's body of writing. He has seriously toe curling things to say about the American education system and what it was really designed to do. As someone who teaches college freshman and wonders what the hell these kids were doing for the last 12 years of their life, this book is really eye opening.

I seriously recommend his stuff. And if you google him, he has one of his entire books available online for free, just to get the message out there. It's called The Underground History of American Education.

check it out!