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Yep, still reading, just not at the rate I ought to be. I plead February for my laxity, but I really don't have much excuse for the beginning of March.
The Wordy Shipmates is Sarah Vowel's witty and heartwarming exploration into the lives and times of the original Massachusetts Bay Colonists. I pretty much only ever read one non fiction book a year outside of those I read for classes, and that's only because my father makes a point of giving me one for Christmas every year. Vowel's often irreverent commentary on the Puritans and the seventeenth century British is good fun, though; perhaps if I remind myself that not all nonfiction reads like my textbooks, I'd read more. And perhaps if I read more about American history, I'd feel less ashamed of my very, very sketchy background in that subject. (Thanks, public school! (I kid, I kid, I'm very grateful to have gone to public school- but US History 2 was essentially a second study hall, when I caught up on sleep or my pre-calc homework.))
The Egyptian Earth is actually something I had to read for my politics class, but I'm counting it because it's a novel and it wasn't on the textbook list. I have to write a paper examining some aspect of Arab social dynamics in it- complete draft is due Monday, and I'm getting very very tired of the fact that every aspect of this class causes me some level of anxiety.
At any rate, it's not at all my usual fare, and I've still got it percolating in my head; you have an Egyptian peasant village suffering the abuses of the government and struggling to rebel in productive ways that really don't go anywhere. It presents a sort of idealized version of peasant social relationships, if not of peasant life- these are not happy, idyllic peasants, they are poor and filthy and frequently irritable and full of vicious gossip, but when push comes to shove they unite against a common cause.
Under normal circumstances, I'd stick with what I know and write about gender relations in the book, but I just finished my gender and sexuality midterm, and I'm a little sick of it. I need to produce some amount of bullshit to hand in; so long as it looks like a potentially complete paper, I can edit it as much as necessary before handing in the final version some time in April. *sigh* Still not feeling this semester at all, and it's half over.
The Wordy Shipmates is Sarah Vowel's witty and heartwarming exploration into the lives and times of the original Massachusetts Bay Colonists. I pretty much only ever read one non fiction book a year outside of those I read for classes, and that's only because my father makes a point of giving me one for Christmas every year. Vowel's often irreverent commentary on the Puritans and the seventeenth century British is good fun, though; perhaps if I remind myself that not all nonfiction reads like my textbooks, I'd read more. And perhaps if I read more about American history, I'd feel less ashamed of my very, very sketchy background in that subject. (Thanks, public school! (I kid, I kid, I'm very grateful to have gone to public school- but US History 2 was essentially a second study hall, when I caught up on sleep or my pre-calc homework.))
The Egyptian Earth is actually something I had to read for my politics class, but I'm counting it because it's a novel and it wasn't on the textbook list. I have to write a paper examining some aspect of Arab social dynamics in it- complete draft is due Monday, and I'm getting very very tired of the fact that every aspect of this class causes me some level of anxiety.
At any rate, it's not at all my usual fare, and I've still got it percolating in my head; you have an Egyptian peasant village suffering the abuses of the government and struggling to rebel in productive ways that really don't go anywhere. It presents a sort of idealized version of peasant social relationships, if not of peasant life- these are not happy, idyllic peasants, they are poor and filthy and frequently irritable and full of vicious gossip, but when push comes to shove they unite against a common cause.
Under normal circumstances, I'd stick with what I know and write about gender relations in the book, but I just finished my gender and sexuality midterm, and I'm a little sick of it. I need to produce some amount of bullshit to hand in; so long as it looks like a potentially complete paper, I can edit it as much as necessary before handing in the final version some time in April. *sigh* Still not feeling this semester at all, and it's half over.
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