Some Comments on Reading ...

I know that we we get to the middle of the semester, it can sometimes be difficult to keep up the motivation in any class, including a literature course. To help a little, here are some words from Ben Ehrenriech, a novelist, on why he reads:

"There's a book I don't remember well, though I can remember precisely where I found it in my elementary school library -- three yards to the right of the door, in the middle of the third shelf from the floor.

I was, and remain, a compulsive reader. Back then, I read on the school bus, at the bus stop in the cold, at the dinner table, beneath the sheets and for hours sometimes in the only room with a door that locked, the bathroom, despite my sister's pounding. This book was about a solitary little boy who, as I did, had a nervous habit of tapping everything he touched, and counting the combinations of taps. One day, he tapped a wall of stone. A door appeared. Behind it was a different world, not better really, but brighter and less dull. I read for the same reason that he tapped: to look for doors, to push through walls."

I would encourage you to do the same -- "Push through walls." It will, I suspect, mae you a more well-rounded individual!

Good luck as you continue reading The White Tiger -- up to page 145 for Tuesday!