But, well, lit class is lit class, and we have tests and reading deadlines. But I simply have no way of keeping up with the reading because there is so much in so little time, and it's hard to get through. So I do what I have to do and fake my way through it by reading just enough to have something to say in class and to do well on the tests, even if it means skimming the pages.
What about you? Have you ever faked reading a book, whether to impress someone or to get by in class? And since we're on the topic, am I the only one who hates Grapes of Wrath?
5 comments:
Aw, we like Steinbeck... But yes, we've faked a book or two. Or more usually, we would fake *finishing* a book -- b/c sometimes we just had too much work from all our other classes to get through an entire lit assignment! (Sometimes the books were good enough that we finished them even after the test, though.)
One thing we were adamantly against was Cliff Notes. We would rather have failed based on our own thoughts (or lack thereof) than succeeded based on someone else's.
Ha ha! I love this post. I can't say that I can remember fake reading a novel that was assigned -- although there were times when I really wanted to (think: Moby Dick.) I have, however, not read some of the assigned non-fiction reading in some classes. You are right -- sometimes there's not enough hours in the day to read everything assigned -- especially in grad school. They love to assign lots of reading...
Good luck!
I fake read Moby Dick for a college class, but got away with it because the prof's sole essay topic was "Discuss the whaling industry as described in Moby Dick."
As for Grapes of Wrath, I was filled with wrath as I read it. Hated every minute. Luckily, I had a teacher who gave me excellent advice to make it slightly less painful... skip the turtle chapters. So I pass that along to you... Skip the turtle chapters!
My whole GCSE class faked reading Macbeth, when we each gave a presentation on a different scene, and made notes from the others.
I've never done this but when I was in school there was a boy who would "play" the Jeopardy theme in his head, and figured that would amount to the time it took to read a page. Isn't that sad? I'm a big proponent of getting kids reading books that they can be genuinely interested in and not forced to read.
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