One of the things that I miss most about taking literature classes is the chance to enter into a dialogue with fellow readers about great literature. Most people think of reading as an isolated endeavour; a hunched and pathetic figure poring over a novel alone in a poorly lit room, but nothing could be further from the truth. Literature is meant to be discussed with friends, written about with scholastic colleagues, and debated vigorously with anyone that will listen. If you’ve never had the experience of reading a wonderful text and then critically discussing its various themes and motifs with a group of
people then you’re missing out on a vital intellectual activity.
Here’s my proposal: If enough people display an interest in forming a blog-reading group, then I’ll suggest a couple of books from various genres and time periods of literature from which to read. We’ll pick a book, and then once a week we’ll discuss either the whole book, depending on length, or sections of our chosen text. For each text I’ll do a little research and kick off our conversations with a brief look at a sampling of critical commentary and a primer on our chosen text’s historical background to locate it temporally.
Interested? If so, let me know in the comments section of this post. If I get enough responses we’ll go ahead with this…if not, well, we’ll pretend I never mentioned this and I’ll try to shake off the embarrassment I feel because of my non-commenting audience.
Yes! I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Yay! Sign me up, Prof!
Well, I’ve never really talked about books before, but I’ll try anything once.
You have too talked about books. Your analysis of Dick and Jane was inspirational! I’m in too, but I think that once a week will be too often a task. That and I think it is a cop out for you. If you have to write on a certain book, you don’t have to write an original (except for the plagerized ones) post.
How about if we try every two weeks? That could be easier to schedule the reading around, too.
I do believe that is a good idea. I’m ready.
Two weeks sounds good to me. I’ll come up with a few reading suggestions, and if you guys have anything special you’d like to read then let me know.
And Mark, thanks for the best laugh I had all day.
I feel pretty dumb right now (actually a common occurence). I saw Mark and just assumed it was Hypermark.
Count me in too, unless you decide to start with a 500 page Victorian novel
You have nothing to worry about on that one Brandon. And I also probably won’t be adding any prison lit. Just don’t think I could stomach it.
I’m interested,too. One book a week is over too muh for me also, and there’s one more thing:
I’m afraid that I can read those book online. The availability of English-language books is sort of limited here. If that, my special circumstances composes a problem in organizing the reading group than just leave me out and don’t bother about it. Really I don’t want to be a cause of a lot of problems. But I’ll enjoy your discussions anyway.
Great idea!