But there's a lot I don't talk about on that blog. Really, the only thing I talk about there is where I've been. I don't talk about people or school or life. That's what this blog is for, I guess. So let's get on with it.
My four classes are Physical Geography, New Zealand History, Contemporary American Literature, and Effective Communication. I wanted to take a NZ lit class but it's not offered 'til next semester, and it looks like we read some cool things in American lit. Things like:
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Sula by Toni Morrison
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
A Visit From the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan
We've just started the Pynchon novel, and I'm not so sure I like it yet.
My Effective Comm course is in the English department, and it's kinda like a rhetoric course, I think. We will do persuasive writing and speaking. The professor has a very obvious Canadian accent, and indeed he admitted to being pretty tired on the first day of class because he was up in the middle of the nigh watching the Gold Medal game between Canada and Sweden. He asked if there was anyone in the class (of maybe 60 or 80 students) from the US or Canada, and I was the only one.
On the subject of class sizes, my geography class has over 300 people and the lecturer uses a microphone. This is not Middlebury.
So far I've hiked in the filming locations for Mordor, Emyn Muil, Hobbit 1 warg chase, and the ruined castle south of Rivendell. Much, much more still remaining.
My leg is all healed up and I'm back to running normally, but I am still a little out of shape from taking the amount of time off that I had to.
I read the first hundred or so pages of Neil Gaiman's American Gods on the plane and in motels and in my flat, but I may have to put it off for a while because schoolwork might take over soon.
That's all the randomly assorted thoughts I can come up with right now.
I just finished American Gods the other day. What do you think? Glad to hear you're running again.
ReplyDeleteI love the interludes that tell how each of the little gods got to America in the first place. The main plot seems cool too, but I'm not far enough along to get a great feel for it. His writing is exceptional everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI wish I were at your level of out-of-shapeness. I suspect that would be a great improvement.
ReplyDeleteI really want to read something of Gaiman's. Has anyone read anything else by him to recommend, or is AG a good place to start?
White Noise is one of my all time favorite books. Let me know what you think of it when you read it. Also I want to read all of the books you listed. So much to readddd!
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