Today I have all the texts I have read during November. Again I have had a lot to read for my course, but I have also tried to read more for pleasure this month. Next months should have more reading for pleasure as I have finished all my semester one texts.
1. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
This is a book that I first read last year and at first I found it really boring! However when I study it, I quite enjoy the different interpretations. I'm going to do a 2,000 word assignment about the effect of the monster's voice which is a really good question for me. The narrative structure and Shelley's wonderful ability to create empathy for the monster despite how many people he kills.
2. Hero - Directed by Zhang Yimou
This is technically a film, but I did study it as part of my literature course. Therefore I thought I would include it. I don't really like this, but I appreciate the techniques that were used. Particularly I like the use of different colours in the different scenes to convey the mood.
3. Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare
This is a text that I have always wanted to study this right since GCSE all those years ago. It wasn't what I was expecting, but then I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It is one of Shakespeare's comedies, but I have to say I preferred The Taming of the Shrew that I studied two years ago. I found that more comic than this. However this is the last of Shakespeare's comedies so maybe he was moving more towards tragedy as in many ways it is more of a comic tragedy.
4. If I Stay - Gayle Forman
Whenever I describe this to people they always think it's really depressing and it is. It is basically about a girl called Mia who is in a car accident and has to choose between life and death. However in some ways the mood is lifted throughout the book as Mia tells stories about her family and her childhood, which makes you understand how much she has truly lost. I really enjoyed the film when it came out and I have to say it stuck quite well to the book, which is something that I love. There's nothing worse than reading a book and then watching the film and then being disappointed that the director has left huge chunks out. Or even worse have added things (yes I am referring to the Kenneth Branagh version of Frankenstein). Also I got this on audiobook which meant I could listen to it on the go.
7. Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
This one was a strange one! It is essentially about a man who turns into a cockroach. However it definitely has a deeper meaning. My feeling is that it is about shell shock as it was produced in 1915, during the First World War.
5. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Firstly he definitely wins the award for the hardest author's name to pronounce that I have seen so far! Secondly this book is amazing. I watched the film when it came out in 2010 and at the time I hadn't studied literature so I didn't spend all the film analysing it and therefore read it at face value. I recently watched the film again and I looked at it completely different. It made me realise that the 13 year old that watched this really had no idea what was going on really. I spend all the film analysing everything, which was really great. It stuck really well to the book which was great! It is dark, but not unimaginable. I got into the story to a certain extent and this was great. I think that if I hadn't already chosen to Frankenstein to do for my assignment, then it would have been a toss up between this and the next book I'm going to mention.
6. Room - Emma Donoghue
I absolutely love this book! It is the last book I'm going to study this semester, but it was more like reading for pleasure. It was the first book for ages that I have got into so much that I did not want to put it down. It is twice as long as Never Let Me Go, but I finished this about 3 days before finishing Never Let Me Go. It is a story of a mother and son who are locked in a room. It would have been really especially as it is a true story. However being from a 5 year old's perspective it is lighter and slightly comic as he doesn't truly understand the world. This lifts the mood making it a more enjoyable read.
8. Studying English Literature - Tory Young
This is a small textbook which is designed for students starting an English Literature degree. Parts it is a bit like she's teaching you how to suck eggs. But it is good for knowing about the differences in university and is brilliant for people like me who do not have any close family members who have been to university.
9. Bliss - Katherine Mansfield
I have to do a presentation on this short story in less than two weeks! Eek! I didn't mind it. It has a lot of good imagery and metaphors, which is what we have chosen to do our presentation on. I have to do about class, which I don't mind.
10. Escape from New York - Zadie Smith
This is the first of four other texts that I had to read that other presentation groups are doing. I don't have to properly study these, but I do have to have read them. This one is based on 9/11 and is quite interesting and slightly confusing. I quite enjoyed it.
11. Inglan is a Bitch - Linton Kwesi-Johnson
This was an interesting piece of performance poetry which is criticising Thatcher's Britain. I love the fact that the poem is written phonetically so it emphasises the Jamaican accent. If you are going to read this I would suggest you watching him perform it as it is unnatural how calm he is!
12. The Machine Stops - E.M. Forster
This one was a strange one and it was very intense. You could imagine it being real life. I was surprised it was written as early as 1909 as I would have guessed that it was much more modern by how much it is related to real life. It is very accurate to what is happening right now.
13. A Jury of her Peers - Susan Glaspell
It is quite a good read. It is all about the inequality of woman at the time of production. It is very much a feminist text and I kind of wished that I had picked this text.
Thanks For Stopping By! :)
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