What are you reading at the moment?

[martha]

Originally posted by UnforgettableLemon:
I think I'm going to aim for a secondary education job, I like working with teenagers, and I love to discuss opinions, and my English teacher last year, who still has a vinyl copy of Under a Blood Red Sky, really got me interested. I'd known I wanted to be a teacher, but I didn't know in what area. So I'm probably gonna major in History and English. The only thing is now the state of Virginia wants all upcoming teachers to get their masters degree, which means I'll be in college for five years! I'll be in so much debt I'll be living with my parents til I'm 30!

The state of Virginia can take a flying leap.

1. There is a nationwide teacher shortage. California will take you with a BA and let you take your credential classes while you teach in many districts. There was a study released recently that forecast a 2 MILLION person teacher shortage by 2011.

2. I know many people who went ahead with their masters' degrees, only to find out they weren't cut out to teach. This is not always true, but it happens a lot. Your choice of majors is excellent for the area in which you'd like to teach.

3. Don't let anyone tell you teaching is easy, or that you'll get rich doing it. Don't let them tell you that teaching is worthless and everything wrong is the fault of teachers. It isn't.

4. Ang what do you mean "still has a vinyl copy of Under a Blood Red Sky?" Doesn't everyone?

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...a highway with no one on it, a treasure just to look upon it...

"The skeletal structure of your foot is not normal." -- my podiatrist 8-6-01

 

[shadow]

just finished U2 At The End Of the World..best book on earth

at the moment I am reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegat

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contradiction is balance

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Originally posted by martha:


4. Ang what do you mean "still has a vinyl copy of Under a Blood Red Sky?" Doesn't everyone?

I don't... but he's the only teacher I've ever had with any semblence of good taste in music.

 

[hermes]

I'm reading

Lolita-Nabakov

Amor and Psyche- forget who and I'm not going downstairs to get it.

and reading my Kafka collection.

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Steve
SAME OLD STORY- Hardcore American Comedy

 

[OzAurora]

I am reading Lolita at the moment, and am finding it very nice indeed, it is very well written, although at times the subject matter is a little hard to deal with.....

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Originally posted by OzAurora:
I am reading Lolita at the moment, and am finding it very nice indeed, it is very well written, although at times the subject matter is a little hard to deal with.....

Isn't supposed to be provocative? The subject matter is supposed to make you think, or something. Never read it, but heard good things about it.

 

[hermes]

Anything by Nabakov will make you think. The dude was a master of creating a story full of symbolism and yet entertaining on the surface.

Lolita is hilarious, disturbing, touching and few other things. Especially since it's written in the first person it can be very unnerving.

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Steve
SAME OLD STORY- Hardcore American Comedy

 

[hermes]

I'm also reading now,

Camus- the Stranger( a translation by MAtthew Ward which is much better than the previous translation I have read)

Morning of the Magicians- which is a strange history of science, majick and human beings in the past few hundred years. It's strange book but an interesting read.

I'm rereading Bukowski's- the days run away like horses over the hill. And reading a NAbakov collection which has many short stories I haven't read before.

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Steve
SAME OLD STORY- Hardcore American Comedy

 

[muh2o]

your post.

 

[OzAurora]

Originally posted by hermes:
I'm rereading Bukowski's- the days run away like horses over the hill. And reading a NAbakov collection which has many short stories I haven't read before.

Oh how I love Charles Bukowski's work, I just adore his style of writing and his humour

 

[Like O2]

Originally posted by UnforgettableLemon:
martha, also Like 02; at what level do you teach, and what do you teach?

Sorry I missed this question U L...

I teach those wacky undergrad college kids! Seriously, I teach Speech Communication courses at the local University and I only have three days left until summer is over and school starts again which = less interference time

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"See, the rock star gets his way! Thank you very much. This feels very Elvis. Thank you."

Bono ~ Houston, Texas 4-02-01

 

[Like O2]

Originally posted by UnforgettableLemon:
my English teacher last year, who still has a vinyl copy of Under a Blood Red Sky, really got me interested. I'd known I wanted to be a teacher, but I didn't know in what area.

My college Speech teacher is the person who started me thinking about teaching (I'd NEVER even considered it until that course).

BTW, my favorite day of the semester with my freshmen class is when we talk about preceptions and how what we think about people that we don't know very well is usually wrong. This lecture takes place a couple of weeks into the semester, so they don't know much about me yet. I ask them all sorts of questions about what they think of me including what kind of music I listen to. Rarely does anyone guess anything close to U2 or the like. It's very funny to see their reactions when I tell them about the concerts I go to, etc.

Last semester, one of my students was at the same U2 concert I was at. After class, I told her that I was the one who handed Bono the flag, her reaction, "OMG Mrs. (my real name), that was YOU? You were SO freaking out!" It was a hilarious moment.

Good luck to you U L, the world needs great teachers, especially one's who love U2.

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"See, the rock star gets his way! Thank you very much. This feels very Elvis. Thank you."

Bono ~ Houston, Texas 4-02-01

 

[foray]

HEY! I totally missed this thread. A few thoughts on your choices:

Lolita is fab, one of the most poetic and witty (in the true sense of the word, not just meaning humourous) books I have ever read. There are a few twists in the story, look out for those; however, some people don't think they are twists at all. Also, there's a whole community online that talks about discrepancies in the novel - yes, splitting hairs!

Christian literature: I started reading Max Lucado's In the grip of His grace (is that correct?) and it kinda put me off. I'd recommend Philip Yancey over Lucado; for starters, The Jesus I Never Knew offers insights on Jesus in the context of Israel at the time and its sociology, including how difficult it would've been for the good news to have been accepted in those days.

Charles Bukowski is depressing - didn't the poor chap kill himself?

I'm currently reading several books at a go: Life A User's Manual (Georges Perec), Man And Superman (Bernard Shaw) and re-reading A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters (Julian Barnes). And a couple of art books on Matisse, Grahame Sydney and Edward Hopper.

foray

 

[PopFly]

Just finished <I>American Gods</I> by Neil Gaiman. Great fantasy/sci-fi/horro/whatever novel.

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They want you to be Jesus
They'll go down on one knee
But they'll want their money back
If you're alive at thirty-three
And you're turning tricks
With your crucifix
You're a star

"I can't watch a man sing a song. He gets all emotional, he starts swaying...it's embarrassing!" -- Jerry Seinfeld

 

[hermes]

-Neil Gaiman is awesome, one of my favorite writers. He's even writing stories for Tori Amos's new album.

For those who haven't read anything by him, check out American Gods, Stardust and his Sandman series

-I thought discrepancies in LOLITA were kind of put to rest by the book itself. Humbert shows and admits to being an unreliable narrator.

-Bukowski could be considered depressing I suppose, but I suspect you are missing much of the humour in his writing. Much like people miss the humour and fantasy of Kafka. And I'm 99% certain Buk didn't kill himself, well it might have been slow, very slow capitulation. He lived to be an old, dirty man.



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Steve
SAME OLD STORY- Hardcore American Comedy

 

[The Wanderer]

most recently I've been reading a collection of poems by late American poet Sylvia Plath (it's sad that her work wasn't really given the credit it deserved until after her death, as she won the Nobel Prize for poetry when an anthology of her poems appeared in 1982)

anyone who likes poetry or who is a feminist, I highly recommend reading her poetry

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For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart---
It really goes.

And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood

-Sylvia Plath