Literature has always been a big
part of my life. It started with science fiction and mystery books when I was a
child. I loved to read books with Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and the stories
of a young scientist named Danny Dunn. School readings were sometimes
interesting, but I appreciate having to read them. I loved “Lord of the Flies”,
“Animal Farm” and “1984” (which I had to read in, ironically, 1984!) As I grew
older, I found myself reading more horror and African American books, like
stories from Clive Barker, Stephen King along with classics like “The
Autobiography of Dick Gregory”, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and Alice
Walker’s “The Color Purple”. I found that old classic books, like Shakespeare
and Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” were books I had a difficult time reading
and understanding. I also find reading plays difficult. Currently, I don’t read
as much as I did when I was younger. I like to read James Patterson books
currently and I’m a big fan of his Alex Cross series. (I’m anxiously waiting
for the new one in November!) I enjoy reading about the sociopolitical climate
that we are in. I truly enjoyed book I read by Michael Moore that made me a fan
of his work.
When
working on a literature assignment, I like being told what must be accomplished
in the assignment. I hated ambiguous book reports when I was in middle school
(over the summer) that just told us to give a report on two books we read
during our break. I liked when we had to give a summary of the elements of
fiction of a book. It made me aware of each character’s role in the book. I
liked describing the roles of conflicts, as well as figuring out the theme of
the book. In high school, literature assignment wasn’t as big as they were in
middle school due to the diverse school I went to. We were able to take things
like acting, AP English, or writing. I chose acting because of the minimal amount
of reading and writing that had to be done to be successful in that class.
Choosing pieces to act out was the difficult part, but I had good partners that
were flexible and liked picking out the part, so I did my part by getting props
and materials. I feel I work better when
I can feel compassion about the work that I am reading. I can relate to most
modern stories, I can not relate to Shakespearean English, and the flow of
plays that I am not actually acting out seems to interrupt my logic.
