Harry Potter and The Gap Year Girl
Let's start with books.
I love books. Always have.
Except that school, first of all, took up all my time so that I never had time to read for fun, and secondly, to be honest drained a little of my love for them.
Thinking Beyond Borders is one of the more academic heavy Gap Year programs. I love learning and I love school so I've enjoyed our twice-weekly seminars that call for discussions and debates on what constitutes productive education, how policy affects sustainable agriculture and consumption, and of course the question that's been driving our exploration for two months: what is development?
However, all this heavy reading about the Mayan Genocide, extreme poverty, banana republics, and government coups at times can be, well, to say the least, difficult and saddening material.
I've found myself with more time on my hands than I ever had in high school. So, with all that time I've decided to fill it up with what I love: reading. To be perfectly honest, reading for the pure pleasure of reading and the enjoyment of getting lost in plot, characters, and themes for myself, without having to analyze it for any class, I've been a lot happier than I have been for a while.
It started with Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and then extended itself to Robin Hobb's "Assasin's Apprentice" (of which I have just started the sequel to). Because you can never drain my love for Shakespeare, I found "Twelfth Night" avaliable pre-downloaded on the cloud and have read myself through the opening scenes of Act I.
Madison, Sam, Charlotte, and I were out working in our coffee field. It was day number four. I don't remember who brought it up but for the next two days Sam and Madison were engaged in a fierce debate over the Harry Potter Series.
Both love the series but found points of contention over whether or not Ron proved himself to be a useful character, about whether or not he was justified to turn Harry away in Book 4, about whether or not Dumbledore did the right thing by...etc. etc. etc.
Confession Time: I have never actually read the Harry Potter series (much to the chagrin of my best friends, Natalie and Katie, who are maybe the two biggest potterheads I know) and so I could not participate in their conversation. Although when I was younger my dad read the first three aloud to me and all my friends here, while they admit that it was quite impressive for my dad to read the books aloud to me, say and I agree that it's just not the same as reading them yourself.
I finished Harry Potter and The Socerer's Stone in two days. I started Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets last night and hope to make substantial progress on it while sitting in a coffee shop later today. Hopefully, I'll be able to start Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by Monday.
I reiterate that I have never been so happy just to devour as many books as I am now. Over the rest of my gap year and even through college and the rest of my life I hope to be able to keep this up and just read for fun again. My roommate Ellie has started compiling a list of books for me to read and I'm looking to make it as long a list as I can. So I ask, please, comment below or message me on Facebook: can anyone recommend some books to me?
I love books. Always have.
Except that school, first of all, took up all my time so that I never had time to read for fun, and secondly, to be honest drained a little of my love for them.
Thinking Beyond Borders is one of the more academic heavy Gap Year programs. I love learning and I love school so I've enjoyed our twice-weekly seminars that call for discussions and debates on what constitutes productive education, how policy affects sustainable agriculture and consumption, and of course the question that's been driving our exploration for two months: what is development?
However, all this heavy reading about the Mayan Genocide, extreme poverty, banana republics, and government coups at times can be, well, to say the least, difficult and saddening material.
I've found myself with more time on my hands than I ever had in high school. So, with all that time I've decided to fill it up with what I love: reading. To be perfectly honest, reading for the pure pleasure of reading and the enjoyment of getting lost in plot, characters, and themes for myself, without having to analyze it for any class, I've been a lot happier than I have been for a while.
It started with Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and then extended itself to Robin Hobb's "Assasin's Apprentice" (of which I have just started the sequel to). Because you can never drain my love for Shakespeare, I found "Twelfth Night" avaliable pre-downloaded on the cloud and have read myself through the opening scenes of Act I.
Madison, Sam, Charlotte, and I were out working in our coffee field. It was day number four. I don't remember who brought it up but for the next two days Sam and Madison were engaged in a fierce debate over the Harry Potter Series.
Both love the series but found points of contention over whether or not Ron proved himself to be a useful character, about whether or not he was justified to turn Harry away in Book 4, about whether or not Dumbledore did the right thing by...etc. etc. etc.
Confession Time: I have never actually read the Harry Potter series (much to the chagrin of my best friends, Natalie and Katie, who are maybe the two biggest potterheads I know) and so I could not participate in their conversation. Although when I was younger my dad read the first three aloud to me and all my friends here, while they admit that it was quite impressive for my dad to read the books aloud to me, say and I agree that it's just not the same as reading them yourself.
I finished Harry Potter and The Socerer's Stone in two days. I started Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets last night and hope to make substantial progress on it while sitting in a coffee shop later today. Hopefully, I'll be able to start Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by Monday.
I reiterate that I have never been so happy just to devour as many books as I am now. Over the rest of my gap year and even through college and the rest of my life I hope to be able to keep this up and just read for fun again. My roommate Ellie has started compiling a list of books for me to read and I'm looking to make it as long a list as I can. So I ask, please, comment below or message me on Facebook: can anyone recommend some books to me?
The Space Merchants
ReplyDeleteby Frederik Pohl!!!!!
From Greg Frome:
ReplyDeleteNarcissus and Goldman
The Fountainhead
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis list could be longer - but if I don't stop now, I'll never stop:
ReplyDeleteScience Fiction
Foundation
by Issac Asimov
and
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Humorist Stories
Thank You, Jeeves
by P.G. Wodehouse
Spy Novel
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
by John LeCarre
Philosophy
Siddhartha
by Herman Hess
Adventure
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Economics
Freakanomics
by Steven Dubner and Steven Levitt
Biography
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
or
Hamilton
by Ron Chernow
Historical Adventure
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West
by Stephen E. Ambrose
Classics
Les Miserables (Abridged version is fine)
by Victor Hugo
and
Phantom of the Opera
by Gaston Leroux
Because you should
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
And I totally second Greg's suggestion of The Fountainhead (by Ayn Rand)