For Children’s Literature I get to read:
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Treasure Island –Robert Louis Stevenson
Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
As well as a massive survey of fairy tales and other children’s stories
Should be easy enough as well as quite entertaining. My prof is anti technology and won’t allow computers in the classroom, which is a major bummer for me, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m interested to see how the Harry Potter section will turn out…
For Contemporary Literature I get to read:
Libra – Don DeLillo
Vas: An Opera in Flatland – Steve Tomasula
Maus – Art Speigleman
House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
Schrodinger’s Cat – Ursula K. Le Guin
As well as a whole bunch of postmodern short stories
I think I’m going to be in heaven in this class. It’s with the same prof who chose a Jonathan Safran Foer book for us to read last semester, so I trust her reading choices already. That and I’ve heard that a lot of the things we are studying have wicked typography and pages where the font runs all over the page. Seeing as my one request for Christmas was JSF’s Tree of Codes, I think I’m going to fit right in.
For Modern Novel I get to read:
The Sound and The Fury – William Faulkner
Hunger – Knut Hamsun
Three Lives – Gertrude Stein
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
Ulysses – James Joyce
I have never been more intimidated by a course than I am by this one. Reason #1: We are given two weeks to read Ulysses. For those of you who haven’t seen Ulysses, it is massive and certainly not a two week read for a slow reader like me, especially when we have to read a guide every chapter along with it just to understand it. I’m overly terrified slash wonderfully excited to tackle a book that has been referenced by every single English prof I’ve ever had. Reason #2: My prof has a vanity plate that says “ULYSSES” above his office door. If that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is. Reason #3: My prof is the Associate Dean for Arts and Science. This is the guy whose job it is to expel students for cheating or plagiarism. No pressure. Reason #4: He said in-class essays that take more than an hour are ridiculous. I don’t write essays in an hour. Reason #5: He wants our final 18-page paper due back in increments. For those of you who have ever witnessed me writing a paper or know about my writing techniques, I also don’t do increments.
This class has me scared out of my mind (my heart was racing through the reading of the syllabus) but I’m excited. It’s important to note that one of the reasons I’m sticking with it is because reading Ulysses is on my life list. I’m excited to be challenged and, while he is intimidating, the prof seems quite funny and I have a feeling I’m going to learn a lot. Also, he has old Windsor eyeglasses, so that’s pretty legit too.
Between my own personal entertainment readings (I just took an optimistic 20 books out from the library. What are the chances I'm going to touch more than 3 of them?), Kerry’s Canadian-book-a-month, and whatever neuro and psych textbooks I have to read, I basically don’t intend to do anything else but read in my free time. This is why I love university.