Reading Review Week

So I've really enjoyed this class so far. I love that each week focuses on a different region/area. For me it is really helpful to have things organized this way because I can prepare myself for the types of culture and ideas that will be shared in each of the stories.

Thus far my favorite stories have been from the Classical and Biblical unit we did in weeks two and three. I kind of expected this because I am incredibly partial to Greek mythology, and basically all things ancient literature and culture. My sister was a Classics major in college and she forced me to read Aeschylus and Euripides, and obviously Homer, so I was really excited about this unit. I also just really love all of the drama in Greek culture, so those stories captured me right off the bat. I also really liked the Georgian folktales. They were so magical and I loved that many of them seemed to have a message of some sort. In one of the stories I also found a lot of connections to one of my favorite Greek characters, Oedipus. The picture to the left is of a Georgian prince. It was the image that I used in my reading diary. The story was about a prince who I thought was very much like Oedipus in many ways.

I definitely enjoy doing the reading diaries because it does help me to get my thoughts in order for the storytelling assignment. I am a really slow writer, and it takes me a while to get the words and feelings I want to convey out on paper. I like the reading diary because it kind of helps me to do that. I can use it to think about and write down the stories that I liked most, and what it was about them that drew me to it. I like focusing my reading diary on the feelings and connotations that I am drawn to in different stories. I kind of like to be able to marinate in a feeling of a story for a while before I actually begin to retell it, and so the diary is super helpful for that.

I'm doing a lot of extra reading for my storybook, which is a big part of why it takes me so long to write my introductions and stories. I kind of wish that I had to do a reading diary for those stories as well, and maybe I will start doing one in my own time so that I can better get my thoughts and ideas in order before writing. I have loved the reading for my storybook. I am so in love with the characters that I have chosen and each of their stories, so it is really fun to get to read them over and over and see the differences in each story's portrayal from varying sources.

Basically I love to read, and think about what I read, and spend all day wishing I was living in the world I was reading about, so this class is just a complete blast.

Image information: A Georgian Prince by Grigory Gagarin, 1850s