Books! a million

I love having my imagination sparked and stretched. One thing I've been doing with my time as of late is reading a lot. In between shows, in between sections, in my mornings, before bed. I just can't get enough. I feel as though I'm trying to make up for the past 6 years of not reading...or only reading Harry Potter :) I am wanting to grow in my tastes though. Yes, I will always love the fiction/fantasy type books because they are fascinating to me and I suppose they are my escapist literature. I am wanting to read more poetry, memoirs, philosophy, non-fiction, plays, and classic literature though. I've got plenty of books that I began and have not finished, so I'll be working on those first and then I'll be venturing out and trying to soak up a spectrum of a fraction of the vast wealth of knowledge and imagination that is in literature.

Now, I've always loved reading, but college kinda takes that away from you...high school too, but in college, there just isn't the time. I must confess - school came easy for me. Even college. And unfortunately academics is not what it once was. As we grow up, so much emphasis from the very beginning is put on grades and scoring and the level of achievement that you reach in your classes via assignments and tests. Not enough emphasis is put on what people are actually learning and gaining from a class, but how much "stuff" is retained to be spit out on a test. And a lot of it in public schools is the administration's fault. They want higher standardized test scores so that they can get more funding. Well, that puts pressure on the teachers to deliver instead of actually doing their job of instilling knowledge and developing young minds to be cultured and educated thinkers and problem solvers.

So I, like most people-pleasers and over achievers, did what I had to do to make the grades, but in the process didn't study like an academic should. I skimmed books or used spark notes to get the gist and be able to write a decent B.S. paper about it, but didn't soak up all there is to soak from the book and what some actual studying would have done. I crammed and memorized what I needed to know for a test so that I got a good grade, but would quickly forget. Now, in my defense, I will say that I did pay attention and take notes in class and so I retained some stuff from that...but let's be honest, I wanted the grade as much as I wanted the knowledge. Gone was the child that found joy in taking the time to read and be swept away by stories - reading had become dry. I wanted to form friendships and spend my time with people or surf the internet for games or fun videos on youtube to watch.

Well, now that I've left the academic world and have some time, I find that not only do I want to read for leisure, but I want to go back and read some of the books that I was supposed to read in school and actually soak them in. I want to write my thoughts about them and I would love to discuss themes and happenings with someone. Maybe I'll start a book club :) ...haha wait, who am I kidding? My friends here don't want to be in a book club.

I will say that I am very proud of my sister. Because of her demeanor and her maturity, she has found something that she is passionate about and that she wants to learn more and more about. She enjoys reading books and going to class and being challenged to think like a scholar. She has found in academics what most of us have forgotten or never had to begin with - a genuine thirst for knowledge. She does well in school not because she is focused on grades and trying to beat the system but because she really wants to learn all that she can about something, form her own thoughts and opinions about it and be thorough in her writing and communicating it back. Something I wish I had when I was in college.

But who knows...maybe I'll go back to grad school one day - then I can focus on learning and not so much on "making the grade." Until then, I am glad to have my love for reading back! (don't you love the smell of books?!)