At the age of seventeen, I enrolled at my local university to study English Lit.
I love books, plain and simple. I love them, and I read them at about the pace I would imagine my parents' Great Danes would devour a handful of bacon.
I recently read about a challenge to read 50 books in a year. It made me laugh. Why? Because I'm pretty sure I easily read two or three times that many books in a year, if not more. But I'm not exactly sure how many books I read a year, because I've never really had the discipline to keep an accurate record for more than a couple of months. This blog, on one level, is my attempt to remedy that character flaw.
By the end of the year, I hope to have listed and commented on every single book I have read, also providing information like how long it took me to read the book (in days, because I'm still not disciplined enough to time myself. Besides, I don't want to turn this into too much of a task).
Because I am in my final semester of a Master's in English, some of these "commentaries" may come in the form of reading responses--I expect to be strapped for time between the 14th of this month and the 11th of May.
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The other purpose of this blog is to provide a resource for Graduate Students facing their much-dreaded comprehensive exams. I passed mine last year (With distinction! Hooyeah!) and, when I find the time, I will be uploading my notes.
Segue.
I have a few caveats to provide you. One, I'm 99% sure that no two comps exams are alike, and I won't be providing information about the test itself. I will, however, discuss study strategies, writing under pressure/severe time restraints, and other similar topics. Two, my notes vary wildly in usefulness, especially because as I got closer and closer to my test date, I decided the most important thing to do was READ EVERY SINGLE BOOK ON THE LIST. You may find this strategy useful in your own studies. My notes will be posted in the spirit of supplement, take them as such--DO NOT SUBSTITUTE THEM FOR YOUR OWN RESEARCH/PREPARATION. 'Cause that would just be silly. So, so silly.
Most of you are gentle(wo)men and scholars, and don't need to read this next section. However, for the sake of academic integrity (and personal pride in my work), I must state:
PLAGIARISM OF THIS WORK IS HIGHLY FROWNED UPON.** Plus, you know, notes aren't exactly intended to be complete or grammatically correct, and teachers tend to value both of those things in a paper.
**If you do decide to claim my (or any guest posters') hard work as your own, may the gods of academia frown upon you, may bad karma follow you around, spilling your coffee and filling your self-written pieces with spelling mistakes and typos, may your dog eat your homework and your jump drive and then vomit them into your school bag, may your moleskine notebooks be ruined with some foul smelling liquid, and may your pencils run out of lead during tests.
--The Bookworm
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