Personal Tastes

To be honest, I enjoy reading everything. As of recent I have been reading primarily non-fiction works such as My Booky Wook by Russell Brand and Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk. Also, I recently re-read The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn, which falls somewhere between fiction and non-fiction. Roughly half the book is a fictitious tale of a Victorian girl who never truly existed, but despite such she was still a hallucination experienced by the author whose experiences in a modern asylum make up the book in its entirety. I also enjoy fiction pieces, I am a huge Laurell K. Hamilton fan and Edgar Allen Poe will always hold a place in my heart. When reading within fiction I tend to stick to more horror pieces and murder mysteries. I don't like being able to guess where the book will take me, but I want to feel compelled to try. I also enjoy poetry. I would have to say William Blake tops that list for me with Robert Frost following. There is very little I won't read if it is put before me. Even if I find I don't particularly enjoy the content, the act of reading itself is soothing enough that I don't mind.

So Far...

In all the short stories [fables, tales, etc] we began class with, I found the morals to be apparent but the stories themselves were entertaining none the less. However, I found our first "real" short story, A&P, to be entirely different. The story-line did not go at all where I expected it to. The story itself is littered with colorful words that give you a distinct feel for the store and specifically the girls who catch the narrator's eye. The attention he pays them, however, leads one to believe the purpose of the story will be a transaction between the girls and him, not he girls and his boss. All in all, I enjoyed the story despite it ending so soon after the conflict became apparent.

Syllabus Day

So this is my required journal for Mrs. Kolb's CompII class. Here it goes...
First day of class... to be honest the people in CompII seem much more quiet than those who were in HonorsComp. We had a good group then, I am sort of worried that this semester won't prove as interesting as a result. I hope I am wrong. I was definitely excited to see The Tell-Tale Heart on this semester's reading list. It is my favorite Poe piece. ^.^ And I am looking forward to the Shakespeare section as well in hopes we cover Hamlet. I am a huge fan of the Opheliac concept and the influence it had on the Victorian era as a whole, so fingers crossed.
The only class assignment was a personal review of what was taken from last semester. My writing was as follows:
In HonorsCompI I learned writing from an objective view is much more difficult than it originally appears. I enjoy writing but it is from a more fictitious or narrative perspective and to be honest I had previously avoided research based essays unless the subject truly called to me. As my papers always warranted high marks my teachers were always alright with this in High School. The last few semesters of college have definitely proven that I should have honed that skill earlier. While my marks have been fine, it takes more effort to turn out a good paper due to my lack of familiarity with the writing style. However, I think by semester's end I had gotten pretty good at it so I suppose that is the most evident skill that I took from the course. That, and proper MLA format for in-text citations as it appears the previous manner I was taught to do so wasn't truly proper. I am not sure how I had gotten through multiple semesters requiring essays without someone correcting me prior to this course! I am just lucky no one was deducting for it. I also learned that balancing personal health problems and a full college load and two children is not the easiest task and should be avoided if at all possible.
Now off to read Chapter One! For three different classes.... and so the homework avalanche begins.