about reading

Recently, I have been a part of a few different conversations about reading: what people read, how, when, etc. I've always thought of myself as a reader, but now that I think about it, I guess I should really fess up that I'm not necessarily that. Readers make time to read, and, well, I don't.
On the other hand, I really love reading when it's actually happening...and usually, I get annoyed that I have to stop to, say, sleep. But I'm admitting, after these conversations, that I'm not "a reader" at this point in my life.

One problem I have is that I feel really ignorant about books, authors, "classics," and overall literary history. I'm not quite sure why such-and-such book is considered classic of this or representative of that, but instead of picking it up to read it, my ignorance makes me want to not read it "yet" until I've learned the basics of literary history. I feel that I wouldn't "understand" the book as well as I would if I had some context in which to place it.
In the end, I end up not reading it because I don't have that knowledge, that results in not reading, and I'm "stuck" in the same position I was in before. It's a vicious cycle, really.

Don't get me wrong: I've taken steps to remedy this. I copied my friend's syllabus from Columbia, bought The Illiad and just tried to start plugging away. Eventually, I couldn't get past the dense list-of-battle-groups section. I moved on.
Another time I bought the Oxford Anthology of Literature and was determined to conduct my own survey literature course with it. Well, that wasn't the lightest summer reading (literally and figuratively), so I left the project for another time.
Other times I just read a book randomly, highly enjoy it, but feel like I didn't "learn" as much as I could because of my lack of understanding of literature.

Part of this is my stubborness about knowing as much as I could. Part of it is motivation/lazy issues. A lot of it is availability. One thing's for certain, though...I don't like the fact that I'm not a "reader," and I'd like to find -- or make -- the time to change that.

Maybe after this whole LSAT thing...

my update posting

Well, it looks like I've slipped a bit (O.K., a lot) in my blogging duties/obligations. Sometimes that just happens 'cause of life. Speaking of, though, here are some of my updates since November.

j-My brother came to visit me for Thanksgiving. It was, I'd say, a turning point in our adult sibling relationship.

@-I took a job at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a national non-profit law firm working towards equality under the law for all gay people. Some of our major cases include the recently-settled Harris v. Penn State and the upcoming Woo v. California (California's version of the Massachusetts ruling. Basically, if we win, gay "marriage" will be legal in California.) We're lead counsel in these cases and more, a role which most people think is reserved for the ACLU, Human Rights Campaign, or Lambda Legal. It's actually NCLR -- kinda cool, huh? I started this past Monday, so I witnessed the media barrage that was the Harris case (Google-news it). It's a great organization and my co-workers are awesome!

G-I've decided to apply for law school for '08.

Y-My girlfriend Leah and I celebrated our first anniversary. Looking forward to year #2.

b-I'm the proud owner of a new road bike.

h-Grandmere has stage four lung and brain cancer. Not so great. I went to visit her for a week and let's just say that cancer is a real eye-opening disease. If I were you I would stop smoking...um, NOW.