So I think I like reading days. When else in the semester do you have time to watch six-hour, Victorian mini-series? Or take naps on benches? Or read books that you've always been meaning to?
I think that the last one is one of the things that I enjoy most about reading days because you feel slightly less bad about it, even if what you are reading has nothing to do with your classes. (I feel the same way about climbing trees on Arbor Day; it's not quite what the day is meant for, but I feel like I better appreciate a tree from the top of it.)
My reading day book today is Ex Libris, recommended to me this week by a friend. I had seen it around the house growing up, and after the first 50 pages, I'm realizing that I had read the first essay already, but I had never managed to finish it for some reason. Perhaps I wasn't at a stage that I could appreciate a compilation of essays.
I think now though that the personal essay is the perfect genre. I've always thought that blot were fun because they are a little bit like road trips through someone's mind. I'd have to call a personal essay a guided tour. And a good essay is like the sort of tour where they will let you stop and play the 15th century grand piano for a moment before moving on. Ex Libris perhaps qualifies as one of these.
In fact, I was going to do some studying after posting this entry, but I think that I probably will take a little more time and read a few more chapters of it.
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3 comments:
Nice. I love reading books for fun.
I love, even more, somehow, reading books that I feel no obligation whatsoever to actually finish. It's quite invigorating, low pressure, anti-book club kind of feeling. You're just there for the ride.
I think that's the best description of an essay I've ever heard, and I took an entire class on them... :)
Remember that song from "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" that Barbara Streisand keeps trying not to hear? That's what I am thinking when I check on your blog. Come back to me!
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