Moonie's Ramblings

[Prof. Moonie]

The current item I'm questing for from my wishlist.



I should note that the amount of gold I have right now is not the 11,000-some gold. No, I've got 100,000+ gold in total; the 11,000-some gold is just the amount of gold I'm willing to spend for getting items off my wishlist.  

[Prof. Moonie]

Anyway, I'm off to take a shower. Be back in a bit.  

[Prof. Moonie]

I'm back.  

[Prof. Moonie]

Just finished glancing at the other forums here in Why Not that I don't adventure very often into. Not very much occurring over there really. *laughs*  

[Prof. Moonie]

I'm off to do my reading homework for my Suspense Thriller class.  

[Prof. Moonie]

Just briefly stopping by...

I noticed that there was a tree down up by my car, so I had to go outside and see whether it had hit my car or not. Thankfully it didn't... but the tree barely missed my car.

 

[Prof. Moonie]

I'm back.

Just going to work on my CR for English Studies, and then I'll be done with homework.  

[Prof. Moonie]

I'm going to be rereading an essay that I'm planning on using for my CR and going to record certain quotes that stick out to me, and possibly comments I have in relation to it, here. So... here we go.  

[Prof. Moonie]

"I finally joined the Book-of-the-Month Club in 1975 as a graduate student in English. Before that, throughout high school and in college, I had imagined becoming a member every Sunday morning as I pored over the club's full-page ads on the back of the New York Times Book Review" (Radway 199).

During my Senior year of high school, I, along with a couple of my best friends, became a member of my high school library's book club. As a result, I was introduced to various books I previously would have passed by. Some examples include "Code Orange" by Caroline B. Cooney, "Confessions of a Not It Girl" by Melissa Kantor, "Rainbow Boys" by Alex Sanchez, "Blood and Chocolate" by Annette Curtis Klause, and "Black Mirror" by Nancy Werlin.  

[Prof. Moonie]

"...I had learned to disparage the club as a middlebrow operation offering only the come-on of free bestsellers to people who wanted only to be told what to read in order to look appropriately cultured" (Radway 199).

While the books I was introduced to through the high school book club were free and were some of the bestsellers of the time, the choices of books we read were often influenced by the club members' voting or suggestions. As a result, not only were we getting to become more familiar with the literature culture, but also becoming more familiar with what sort of books interested our fellow club members.  

[Prof. Moonie]

"I tried hard to keep my voracious taste for bestsellers, mysteries, cookbooks, and popular nature books a secret - a secret from everyone, including the more cultured and educated self I was trying to become" (Radway 200).

I don't think there has ever been a book or type/genre of books that I've tried to keep my love for it as a secret from myself. However, there have been some books that I've tried to keep secret from a few family members, such as those surrounding the Queer community, due to my knowledge of their prejudice of such community. There is a part of me that is concerned how such knowledge of me dwelling in such culture could affect my relationship with said family members.  

[Prof. Moonie]

"With grim determination I restricted this reading to late at night just before bed and devoted long daylight hours to the business of learning..." (Radway 201).

Ever since I've started college, I've often resorted to this sort of schedule. I would spend my day working on school reading... and then spend an hour (the length of time based on how long I set my music to play) before going to bed for reading for personal entertainment.  

[Prof. Moonie]

"I still liked the books I read at night a lot more than the books I read for my classes" (Radway 201).

Sadly enough this is also the case for me 90% of the time.  

[Prof. Moonie]

"Books, then, stood for me as signs of longing for absent things, for the thrill of wider experience and the promise of greater knowledge, rather than as the occasion for an accomplished performance of the self in the act of delivering an assured interpretation or judgment" (Radway 205).

Radway's comment about books in this selection intrigues me. I understand her concept of how when reading books for assignments in a classroom setting, we drastically try to pick up on the "correct" interpretation that will coexist with the interpretations of our fellow classmates and even the teacher's. Sometimes when we discover our interpretation is drastically different from others... and isn't accepted as openly as we hoped... we often become our worst critic.

When it comes to how books personally reflect the "signs of longing for absent things," it takes me awhile to determine what it may be. At this time, the ones that seem to be easily identified is the desire for a "happily ever after" relationship, adventure, and the wish to travel to other places (especially the European area).  

[Prof. Moonie]

Alright. Done collecting quotes and commenting on them from that particular essay. Now to start working on writing the actual CR as a result of the posted selections.