Monday, April 12, 2010
Reading as a class and reading indvidually
Throughout the semester, and particularly during our discussion on Postcards I have contemplated how different the experience and our understanding of a piece of literature is when we read, discuss, and analyze it as a class as opposed to reading it on our own. More specifically, there are often many elements, themes, concepts, etc. that are raised in class that I simply did not think of while doing the reading on my own. I admittedly skipped over many of the "postcards" at the head of each chapter. Yet our discussion on Thursday totally altered my perception of them and their significance. What do you all think? Is the experience of reading a book really all that different when we read it as a class and thoroughly dissect it and attempt to understand it? Do you prefer reading and figuring out the work on your own or having the variety of minds and thoughts from classmates contribute to your understanding of it?
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I like to enjoy a book on my own time... and then be able to come back and discuss it after because i definitely agree that I end up seeing a lot of things I hadnt picked up on in my original reading.. especially if I was pressured for time. After I read I usually google criticisms and find myself seeing way more themes and whatnot then I had thought were there
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ReplyDeleteI would rather read a book on my own and interpret it with a small group of people. It especially helped me in Postcards because that book didn't make sense to me at first reading. I think book clubs only work on a small scale--that's why I don't understand how Oprah's Book Club works that efficiently.
ReplyDeleteI like reading books on my own but I also really enjoy having a group to read with. Usually when I just sit down to read a book for leisure I take it for face value and don't really think too much about the message behind it. If I'm reading a book for a class I put way more effort into trying to interpret it. While it's sometimes a pain to feel like you have to read a certain book, I think in the end, I get more out of it when I read with a group.
ReplyDeleteBut no one is saying that they get more out of books when they read them in class. What gives?
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