Welcome to English 201-008! We’re going to have a great semester. We’ll be using this blog to share ideas and reflections on the readings we do. We’ll be using this blog to start and join conversations about literature and about, just maybe, things beyond that. It’s up to you.
We also have a Blackboard site, which we’ll be using for assignments. But this is where you’ll post all of your reading response journals throughout the semester.
Reading Response.
ReplyDeleteIn How Should One Read a Book , Virginia Wolfe tries to explain to us how one can fully benefit from reading in a certain way that suits him or her. As she states in the very first paragraph that the only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, but to follow one’s own instincts, to use one’s own reason, and in the end we come to your own conclusions.(Wolfe 1). In this statement, Wolfe tells us the readers the very first step to enjoying reading a book. The author may have meant for a book to portray a certain picture but from the way we have been told to read a book may contradict what the author meant in the first place and so just by being open minded and reading to one’s very own satisfaction is what brings out the best in a book and the best of us.
To further explain this point, she goes on and states “To read a novel is a difficult and complex art” (Wolfe 3) and so one need to read to their own pleasure since our conclusion will be influenced on how the book was read. For instance, one may interpret a piece of art by the shades of colours whiles others may interpret an art work based on the strokes of the brush. In other words, forgetting all pre- conceived judgmental ways of reading which could include the author, and maybe previous books written by the author is the best way to get pure satisfaction from a book.
Daniel Abrokwah
dabrokwa@gmu.edu