Reading
When I was young I would read often. I would turn pages and make tracks. Then something happened. I don't now what it was, but reading for pleasure ceased. For years. Probably even a decade.
At short blasts I would pick it up again, committing myself to read certain classics, or to use a grad school break to read books I wanted to read for a change, and I would dive right in again, happy as a clam and sorry so much time had passed when I wasn't doing more of this.
One of the most common things volunteers do more of during their service (besides smoking and drinking) is reading. I have already been slow on this, reading only several books for pleasure (books non-Ukraine related) during training--The Devil in White City, which I passed on to a clustermate who also devoured and enjoyed it, and then made its way to another clustermate. After that came David Sedaris' Barrel Fever, parts of which I had read before, but I felt that short stories were easier to contain myself to, as I needed to do homework, lesson plan, hang out with host family, etc.
Lastly, before leaving K--, I read Kate Braverman's story about Frida Kahlo, which I also enjoyed and passed along too.
Now in N--, I again have been neglectful, but mostly from a lack of material. I started reading then dropped Howard Zinn's A People's History. I read all the texts I needed to teach and I have had no less than 5 literature anthologies that I have idlely looked through when the mood set in. I was given Ann Packer's The Dive from Clausen's Pier, which was a Lifetime movie and so it was easy, fun, and effortless for a weekend read, especially with it being bitterly cold outside at the time. After training, I decided to read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, which only tugged at my heart making me wonder why I was in Ukraine and not toughing it out on the Applachian Trail.
I also read Jonathan Safran Foer's "masterpiece" Everything is Illuminated, which I did not consider worth the hype, Anzia Yeziersky's Breadgivers, a story about an immigrant woman and her family--one of those turn of the century preachy "don't let this happen to you" tales, but hey, it also killed a Sunday. Lately, I have been getting back into reading, since classes are over, and have gone through Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body again for like, the fifth time, read Hemingway for the first time (The Old Man and the Sea), and read a clever novel called The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart. Most of these books have come from other PCV's but since a recent package delivery from Bowling Green State University's American Cultural Studies department, who were kind enough to send some books for academic use, I'll have a lot more to choose from (the Hemingway came from that box).
Ah well. This list is neither interesting nor impressive, but I'm just getting started! I mean, as long as I can find material, I want to make reading a central personal goal, as it seems mroe feasible than reaching an advanced high on the language profiency exam or totally being an aweesome instructor/volunteer 24/7.
What I would like from all of you is a must read list of some books you particularly enjoy. Granted, my selections are scant, depending mostly upon what other volunteer's have left behind in HQ, but if anyone is feeling generous, you can always send something my way. I think the time is nigh to tackle some serious weighty stuff. Bring it on!
(oh, and I am still reading Flashman, I just took a more fictiony break--I thought it best to take that to Yalta with me).
At short blasts I would pick it up again, committing myself to read certain classics, or to use a grad school break to read books I wanted to read for a change, and I would dive right in again, happy as a clam and sorry so much time had passed when I wasn't doing more of this.
One of the most common things volunteers do more of during their service (besides smoking and drinking) is reading. I have already been slow on this, reading only several books for pleasure (books non-Ukraine related) during training--The Devil in White City, which I passed on to a clustermate who also devoured and enjoyed it, and then made its way to another clustermate. After that came David Sedaris' Barrel Fever, parts of which I had read before, but I felt that short stories were easier to contain myself to, as I needed to do homework, lesson plan, hang out with host family, etc.
Lastly, before leaving K--, I read Kate Braverman's story about Frida Kahlo, which I also enjoyed and passed along too.
Now in N--, I again have been neglectful, but mostly from a lack of material. I started reading then dropped Howard Zinn's A People's History. I read all the texts I needed to teach and I have had no less than 5 literature anthologies that I have idlely looked through when the mood set in. I was given Ann Packer's The Dive from Clausen's Pier, which was a Lifetime movie and so it was easy, fun, and effortless for a weekend read, especially with it being bitterly cold outside at the time. After training, I decided to read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, which only tugged at my heart making me wonder why I was in Ukraine and not toughing it out on the Applachian Trail.
I also read Jonathan Safran Foer's "masterpiece" Everything is Illuminated, which I did not consider worth the hype, Anzia Yeziersky's Breadgivers, a story about an immigrant woman and her family--one of those turn of the century preachy "don't let this happen to you" tales, but hey, it also killed a Sunday. Lately, I have been getting back into reading, since classes are over, and have gone through Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body again for like, the fifth time, read Hemingway for the first time (The Old Man and the Sea), and read a clever novel called The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart. Most of these books have come from other PCV's but since a recent package delivery from Bowling Green State University's American Cultural Studies department, who were kind enough to send some books for academic use, I'll have a lot more to choose from (the Hemingway came from that box).
Ah well. This list is neither interesting nor impressive, but I'm just getting started! I mean, as long as I can find material, I want to make reading a central personal goal, as it seems mroe feasible than reaching an advanced high on the language profiency exam or totally being an aweesome instructor/volunteer 24/7.
What I would like from all of you is a must read list of some books you particularly enjoy. Granted, my selections are scant, depending mostly upon what other volunteer's have left behind in HQ, but if anyone is feeling generous, you can always send something my way. I think the time is nigh to tackle some serious weighty stuff. Bring it on!
(oh, and I am still reading Flashman, I just took a more fictiony break--I thought it best to take that to Yalta with me).
posted by Molly | 1:55 AM
1 Comments:
I loved "The Devil in White City", but then thats exactly the sort of wierdness I like to find well written.
Also glad to hear that Flashman 4 is still being enjoyed, even savoured and saved. I, of course, recommend all the rest of them, as per a previous post.
For off-the-top-of-my-head recommendations in general, I would say:
1984- George Orwell;
Job- Robert Heinlein;
Stalingrad- Anthony Beevor;
LA Trilogy- James Ellroy; (thats three seperate books, LA Confidential being the second)
Thats all I can think off right now as being "recommend to everyone" type books.
Currently I am reading a book called "Rising '44" about the battle for Warsaw. It is not only a brilliantly well researched and written history tome, but I would say, essential reading for anyone who wants to know more about how modern Eastern Europe came into being, and how far the USSR were prepared to go to see their vision of the world realised.
-eoin
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