Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume 2

I feel a tad sorry that I’ve been posting so few reviews, but I feel even worse that I’ve gotten to read so little lately. I was on break from school this whole past week, and I managed to read almost nothing and play many more video games than I’d gotten to play at school. I was replaying through Borderlands, which if you haven’t played… go buy it now! It’s been out for a few years, and it will be a great thing to have played when Borderlands 2 comes out. I’m also still playing through Lost Odyssey (currently on disc 3 of 4). I’ve also been burning through season 4 of Lost, which is getting really interesting… It was a nice break, but I’m excited to start reading again!

Another reason I’ve been avoiding reading more than necessary is the guilt I feel associated with only pleasure reading rather than the class reading I know I should be doing. That can really be attributed to the 3,000 page beast that is the Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume 2. For my major British authors class, we’ve read a few selections from authors like William Blake, Mary Wallstonecraft, Jane Austen, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and many others for our Romantic Era unit. It turns out I’m not a huge fan of the Romantic Era… although I really enjoyed Austen’s “Love and Friendship,” a terrific satire of Romantic literature.

We are currently studying the Victorian Era, which is why we read the oh-so-lovely North and South, which I’ve expressed my views on… Luckily, we get to read some Oscar Wilde soon, so maybe that will save the Victorian Era for me.

Our next unit is “The Twentieth Century,” which I’m hoping will catch my interest more than the last two. We’re reading some Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Woolf, and I’m actually doing a presentation on the day we read selections from Jean Rhys and Louise Bennett. I haven’t really been enjoying this class as much as I hoped I would at the beginning of the term. We discuss the readings every day, and it gets really tedious having to talk about the same things class after class (we discussed North and South for six class periods).

I’m planning to get back into reading daily and finishing a book or two a week that isn’t related to class. I’m currently finishing up Three Kingdoms (for an Asian cultures class) and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, which I’m loving so far. I am hoping to get those reviews out this coming week, and get back on track when it comes to reading for pleasure.

Favorite Quotes

I thought I would start off Wednesday with some nice thoughts about literature, and what better way to do so than to use others’ words? Here are some of my favorite literary quotes.

“There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.”
― P.G. Wodehouse

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.”
― Elmore Leonard

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“Do you realize that all great literature is all about what a bummer it is to be a human being? Isn’t it such a relief to have somebody say that?”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

“Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”
― Flannery O’Connor

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
― Mark Twain

I also thought I would include this sad Cracked.com article. It lists reasons we are in a new book-burning period. It’s sad to admit, but I feel like it’s true.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19453_6-reasons-were-in-another-book-burning-period-in-history.html?wa_user1=3&wa_user2=Weird+World&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=feature_module