Beautiful, Nose-Tickling, Irreplaceable Dust

I have spent the last week and a half in Birmingham, UK for the induction to my PhD program at the University of Birmingham.  Much of this time was dedicated to ensuring that the new doctoral students would not suffer the academic version of 'culture shock' after our two weeks on campus are over (a large cohort is Distance Learning students), but I have also spent a significant portion of my time in the campus Main Library.  It's a glorious building full of floors and floors of books, periodicals, and journals.  (And it doesn't hurt that there is a delicious café on the ground floor...)

Of course most of the time I've spent in the library has been focused on research and writing--although I spent all of today dealing with course assignments and student questions (I'm teaching my courses via DL/online platform for the two weeks I'm gone), but I've definitely spent more than a few minutes simply drooling over all the beautiful books.  Please don't misunderstand me: I love my iPad.  This [over-priced] magical tablet allows me access to millions upon millions of books; however, I will never, ever accept a touchscreen as an equitable replacement for the texture of paper.  True: I've sneezed more in the past few hours in the library than I normally do in a week, but this seems a small price to pay to be in the presence of so many glorious tomes.  Caxtons, caxtons, everywhere! 

I am an admitted, unabashed bibliophile.  --A sneezy bibliophile, but one who will defend the importance of paper no matter how brilliant the technology is to come.

Today's moral: Read a book, a real one, one that has a possibility of giving you a paper-cut.

Books Every (English-Speaking) Child Should Read

I know there are a number of these lists online; I know because my mother (yup, I have one, too) emails them to me all of the time.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be an affirmation of her excellent parenting skills (Thanks, mom!), or if she's hinting that she wants grandkids.  Either way, it's not terribly subtle, even if the purpose isn't clear.

While stressing over the pile of essays I did not wade entirely through grading this weekend, I came up with the start of a list in my head last night (I was attempting to fall asleep):

*Please note that I am clearly not listing these in any order of age-appropriateness, etc.

Frog and Toad
The Wind in the Willows
Little House on the Prairie (the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder series--and this is good American history, too)
The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
Every Dr. Seuss book ever written
Good Night, Moon
The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne
Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathon Swift
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson 
Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne
A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairytales
Aesop's Fables
The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
The entire Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling
Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Little Men, Louisa May Alcott
Joe's Boys, Louisa May Alcott
Any of the Hardy Boys series, Franklin W. Dixon
Any of the Nancy Drew series, Edward Stratemeyer
Adventures in the Big Thicket, Ken Gire
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
White Fang, Jack London
The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Christmas Tales of George MacDonald
The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald
At the Back of the North Wind, George MacDonald
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving
To Kill a Mockingbird, (if s/he isn't already required to read it in school) Harper Lee 
The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
Anne of Green Gables (and the whole series), L. M. Montgomery
The Princess Bride, William Goldman
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins

These are just the ones that came to mind last night while I was busy not sleeping.  Also, just letting your kiddos watch the movies is not what I mean.  In fact, if you let your kids watch the movies for any of these books without first having them read the book (or reading it with them), you have pretty much ruined the book for them.  In the case of Gulliver's Travels, don't bother showing them the movie at all.
 
More to come, I'm sure...

Numbers vs. Action

I took the time to review most of my ENG 120 students' SAT scores in Writing and Reading this semester.  I was already aware that my university has remarkably low SAT score percentiles across the board, but I was curious about my specific students' scores.  With few exceptions, my students had the low Reading and Writing SAT scores I had expected, although many, surprisingly, had passed the University's in-coming Writing Placement exam (although many failed the Reading Placement exam).

What does this mean?  Well, when I couple it with one sections' responses to my question, "What was the last fiction book you read-for pleasure or school?" it means my students are writing and reading well below what is acceptable for college students.  Still not shocking.

At the beginning of the third week of the semester, however, with both sections roughly six weeks into their respective novels (Ender's Game and The Hunger Games), I can start to judge how many students are reading (and how well).  My students are, across the board, reading!  Yay!  Hoorah!  Fireworks and hooplah!  Not only are they reading, but they are also enjoying what they are reading!

I'm not just patting myself on the back here--I'm genuinely thrilled that my students are reading.  Both novels engender great discussion about social issues, ethics, and morals--and my students are largely driving the discussion.  They also keep a weekly blog about the novel (I post general topics/guidelines each week), which forces them to write about what they are reading, in addition to discussing it. 

Books, schmooks

As inevitably happens every semester, a few weeks in, I run into the issue of students who still do not have their textbooks. Ideally, I only have to deal with the handful of students who are waiting on financial aid disbursements, waiting on their next paycheck, or are simply trying to squeak by without buying the text; in reality, the campus Bookstore is nearly as big a problem as the first three.

I have students in both my ENG 120 and ENG 262 classes that do not have textbooks because the Bookstore did not order enough books and is now awaiting secondary shipments. Paired with the constant chatter about E-texts (especially since Apple just threw its bid back in the game), this textbook issue is definitely helping to sway me toward e-texts.

Now, to be clear, I realize that any number of college students simply won't treat an e-book the same as a hard book; think: out of sight, out of mind. I still love, and always will, allergen-creating paper books, but I also read probably half my books on my Ipad now. The beauty of an e-text, as opposed to ordering a book online, is that we only have to wait for an e-text to download (at most this takes maybe 30 minutes, with slow internet and a big file), as opposed to waiting on the packaging process, post office, etc.

But will e-books and e-texts actually replace our paper texts? I think they will definitely start to supplement hard-copy texts, but replace them entirely?

What do you think?

Just for Fun

If you love books, or cool videography, or just appreciate hard work, check this out!