^This is the discovery I have made in the last month.
Easing myself back into reading on a regular basis is not an easy thing. When I was sick for those delightful eight months, my brain felt clouded and dull. I read everything I needed to for school, but only because I've never missed a school deadline in my life, and to do so would be so painful that I made myself read and write. Still had to do extension, but at least I finished on time for that.
Anyway, reading critically is not easy. It's THE thing in college you have to learn to do well. Reading Shakespeare critically is really hard. But I'm a Shakespeare major so...alack, alack!
At the end of July, I tried to start seriously reading again. I poked through some Shakespeare biographies, a couple essays, and attempted to start a play. But my brain didn't want any of it, and I just felt more inadequate than before.
But then!
I picked up a book that had absolutely nothing to do with Shakespeare. "When Everything Changed" by Gail Collins. It was a book I had been meaning to finish for a year. And you know what? Everything changed!
I delved into Gail Collins' account of the history of American women from the 1960s to the present. I ate up the history of the ERA, birth control and abortion, and feminism as a whole. It's an incredibly well-written book, and I really dug it. As I read, my brain seemed to shake out the cobwebs and slowly turn back on. I enjoyed reading again.
This made me realize that Shakespeare isn't everything for me. Yes, it's what I'm studying for my Plan, and for the past year at Marlboro I convinced myself that being a Shakespeare scholar was what I was destined for. But reading Ms. Collins' book reminded me that although I love reading and thinking about Shakespeare, I also just love reading and thinking. Literature in general. I'm finally understanding when my adviser told me that Plan is just something you like and study for a year. It isn't your life.
So while Shakespeare is definitely going to be important to me in the next year and a half, I'm going to try to balance myself and read some other books. The Bostonians; Inifinite Jest; more Gail Collins. We'll see what else makes it onto my reading list.
Easing myself back into reading on a regular basis is not an easy thing. When I was sick for those delightful eight months, my brain felt clouded and dull. I read everything I needed to for school, but only because I've never missed a school deadline in my life, and to do so would be so painful that I made myself read and write. Still had to do extension, but at least I finished on time for that.
Anyway, reading critically is not easy. It's THE thing in college you have to learn to do well. Reading Shakespeare critically is really hard. But I'm a Shakespeare major so...alack, alack!
At the end of July, I tried to start seriously reading again. I poked through some Shakespeare biographies, a couple essays, and attempted to start a play. But my brain didn't want any of it, and I just felt more inadequate than before.
But then!
I picked up a book that had absolutely nothing to do with Shakespeare. "When Everything Changed" by Gail Collins. It was a book I had been meaning to finish for a year. And you know what? Everything changed!
I delved into Gail Collins' account of the history of American women from the 1960s to the present. I ate up the history of the ERA, birth control and abortion, and feminism as a whole. It's an incredibly well-written book, and I really dug it. As I read, my brain seemed to shake out the cobwebs and slowly turn back on. I enjoyed reading again.
This made me realize that Shakespeare isn't everything for me. Yes, it's what I'm studying for my Plan, and for the past year at Marlboro I convinced myself that being a Shakespeare scholar was what I was destined for. But reading Ms. Collins' book reminded me that although I love reading and thinking about Shakespeare, I also just love reading and thinking. Literature in general. I'm finally understanding when my adviser told me that Plan is just something you like and study for a year. It isn't your life.
So while Shakespeare is definitely going to be important to me in the next year and a half, I'm going to try to balance myself and read some other books. The Bostonians; Inifinite Jest; more Gail Collins. We'll see what else makes it onto my reading list.
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