It’s not the easiest admission for an English teacher to make: By the time I got to high school, I was one of those students.
You know the kind. Pretty smart but also pretty lazy. With a bit of attitude — not enough to get in trouble or make a bad grade but just enough to resist authority just a bit.
Yeah, I usually didn’t do my best, just enough to get that A or B I needed. And I didn’t usually do all of what I was assigned. And I didn’t always do whatever I did do on time. Faking it and full of excuses.
Once, for example, I did an oral book report on Winesburg, Ohio, after having just read the cover and skimmed through. I got an A. :(
(Pssst: Even though it’s been more than 25 years, my husband is sitting here telling me he’s not quite sure the statute of limitations is up on this. #riskingit ;)
Dana Huff has posted a challenge to read those books we should have read back in school. And even though I’ve already done my personal penance (by reading every book I could remember that I should have back then), there are so many other classics I want to have already read that I’m taking the challenge.
I’m not sure which books I’m going to read this year, but I’m committed to reading at least two. I’d like to read six, but with all of my other interests, it’s hard to aim that high.
Plus, I’m thinking one of my choices will be War and Peace, the proverbial tome that calls to me in Russian far beyond Fonda and Hepburn, and the other may well be Ulysses, a maze of meanings that I’m actually feeling a bit better about now that I’ve found the “Dummies” version. LOL!
In case you’re interested, here are some lists of “Top 100 Novels” that I’ve bookmarked:
