My classes are starting to pick up now. I'm teaching 5 different classes in 8 sessions each week. It's nice to finally be working again, but it only amounts to about 15 hours a week. I spend an equal amount of time preparing lessons, but, still, 30 hours a week leaves me with quite a bit of free time. I'm not really complaining.
I just remembered that I could use this free time to do a LOT of reading that I've been "meaning to do "...mmmm...probably since high school. Like that assignment to read Grapes of Wrath and write an essay about it--I wonder if Ms. Petrograph, or whatever her name was, would accept my essay still. Better late than never? Probably not.
I sit down and compile reading lists , with some frequency, if you want to know the truth. But I never seem to read anything on them. Or I'll start one book, and then become completely entranced with another--a rogue book that didn't even make it onto the list. I don't know. Maybe I feel like I'm some sort of renegade reader, refusing to be bound by the confines of a silly to-do list. Who even came up with this list, anyways!?
And really, why make such a list in the first place? It's only because I think books X, Y, and Z will make me a better person somehow. Like I'm missing out on something that everybody else is in on. As if the quality of my character were balanced precariously on my reading, and actually comprehending, Memoria de mis Putas Tristes by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (No offense to the friend who recommended that book to me. I will read that one. And I will like it.)
But what of it if I fail to follow through with my promise to read all these books for the betterment of this poor literary delinquent? Then what? I can't even stand to think about the person I'll be if I don't get through half these books I've jotted down by the time I'm thirty.
I'm certainly not saying that I'm against reading, or against striving to be a better person. And you can safely bet that I will continue making these empty promises to books all over the world. I just felt like it was time to come clean. So now you know.
What's that saying? A word in the head is better than two in the book?
5 comments:
If you need a few more books I could send a few. I have no idea how you could be reading more than one book at a time. :)
Love M
Sara, You are officially my new favorite blogger. How are you doing down there?
i like the 'Catcher' reference. nice.
If you have that much time on your hands I have a TON of computer books you can read.
You know, I think you found your calling. I look forward to reading your blog every day! Now if you can just figure out how to earn a living from it...
I enjoy going to a used book store. To browse the shelves of all the books that other people have read. I t makes me look smart to the shop owner, like I'm searching for book that is know longer in print.But my favorite is to goto a discount book store where all the books are like animal shelter bagging to be bought with their bright orange stickers displaying their new value.
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