Thank you for this expanded and well meditated version of something Selkie had noticed.
Interestingly, the part of my reading that I did as school requirement is very very small. We usually weren't made to read whole books, but only short excerpts. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea.
So which books I read were pretty much my choice. I also tend to read British and dead authors because I find them easier than American contemporary.
And your white male remark is very much to the point. Around age twenty-five (I'm about your age BTW) I started making a conscious effort to read women writers. Black US writers are more difficult, because sometimes the language is so different (the dialogue in The Color Purple was often very hard for me).
And I'm impressed at you going to a conservative college. I somehow can't imagine this was your choice (although maybe it was - so many years ago) but I know in the US people's choice of what and where they study are often influenced by money reasons.
I keep forgetting how privileged I am - I got to learn English from a native speaker, and I could have studied everything I wanted, anywhere I wanted in Italy (it was so much cheaper then). As luck would have it, I got a wonderful education totally for free, in a very progressive big university.
no subject
Interestingly, the part of my reading that I did as school requirement is very very small. We usually weren't made to read whole books, but only short excerpts. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea.
So which books I read were pretty much my choice. I also tend to read British and dead authors because I find them easier than American contemporary.
And your white male remark is very much to the point. Around age twenty-five (I'm about your age BTW) I started making a conscious effort to read women writers. Black US writers are more difficult, because sometimes the language is so different (the dialogue in The Color Purple was often very hard for me).
And I'm impressed at you going to a conservative college. I somehow can't imagine this was your choice (although maybe it was - so many years ago) but I know in the US people's choice of what and where they study are often influenced by money reasons.
I keep forgetting how privileged I am - I got to learn English from a native speaker, and I could have studied everything I wanted, anywhere I wanted in Italy (it was so much cheaper then). As luck would have it, I got a wonderful education totally for free, in a very progressive big university.