College reading is no fun

A few months ago I got my degree in English (woot woot!) and it's surreal (but amazing) knowing that I no longer have to spend countless hours on homework and studying.

One unexpected graduation bonus is reading for...wait for it...FUN. Can you imagine that? Spending time reading just because you WANT to? I actually have time (and motivation) to do that now.

Last fall, I took a 20th Century Writers class and had to read The Age of Innocence. I read it over the summer because I'm annoying and was excited to get to class and talk about what I thought were the most interesting parts of the story. My expectations were quickly squashed.

Class was such a DRAG.

First of all, half the people who take English classes are not English majors. No offense to them or anything, but having a diverse level of readers in a classroom limits the depth of the conversation.

Secondly, people were constantly trying to be deep about stuff that was, let's be honest, not that deep.

Third of all, looking for themes is OVERRATED. I said it.

Oh and I can't even get into writing ESSAYS. The absolute last thing I want to do after finishing a novel is write an eight page paper about it. (Personally, I'd rather write a blog post.)

Lastly, my professor was...my professor. If you know, you know.

Reading in class ruins a perfectly good book. That's probably the antithesis of being an English major, but never again will I read a book for a class over the summer and have it subsequently ruined.