Merry Wanderer of the Night:
english major

In the most recent issue of Real Simple magazine there is a great article about things you shouldn't say to a college graduate. I mostly bought the magazine because of the one page article and I think it was worth it. So inspired by them I've come up with five things you shouldn't say to an English major.

1. Have you ever considered minoring in business? Yes, I have. No, I don't want to. If I wanted to minor in business I would and could but I've found a different path and it doesn't involve killing myself with a microeconomics textbook. Also, the business department is not the be all end all college.
2. So you want to be a teacher? Thousands of people get English degrees every year and obviously not all of of them end up being teachers. Some people like the idea of standing up in front of thirty pimple faced brats and attempting to explain why To Kill a Mockingbird is so great. I, for one, do not.
3. Recite some Shakespeare! I'm not sure where people get the idea that English majors sit in rooms and memorize lines from Shakespeare but someone asked me to do this once. I've never even taken a class on Shakespeare. I mean I've read Shakespeare for class, but only for a couple of weeks. I think this is just the first author most people think of.
4. So what do you want to do? Most college students don't know what they want to do but everyone seems particularly concerned about what English majors want to do. I don't really understand this. I usually want to ask them if they're offering me a job. There are a lot of majors out there that seem less applicable to the real world than English. Ones that immediately come to mind are American Studies, Leisure Studies, and Italian-- and I'm sure all of those people find jobs eventually. With all the typos I see on restaurant signs I think we could use a few more English majors in the world.
5. Why don't you write a book? A lot of English majors want to write books. A lot of English majors will write books or are currently working on books. But writing a book is not the solution to the "problem" of being an English major and truthfully there are a lot of English majors who I hope never, ever write books. Some English majors just like to read. Some of them are great technical writers. Some of them have no interest in writing at all. You're shocked I know.

So what do you say instead? Ask them what kind of classes they are taking, what they like about their major, what they don't like about it. English majors are great at talking and I'm sure you'll find a great conversation with them somehow.

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The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Essays Read this Week:
1. Same design: differing outcomes
2. On schoolmasters' learning

Favorite Quotations:
"We are taught for the schoolroom, not for life." (Seneca, On schoolmasters' learning)

"Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own."(On schoolmasters' learning).

General Thoughts:
I had an intense connection with On schoolmasters' learning. I'm nearing the end of my third year in college and I've had a lot of frustration towards the university experience. I'm glad I've had the opportunity to go to college. I'm lucky to have great parents who help me pay for school and encourage me. I've had some great professors at the University of Iowa. And, after all, if I wasn't an English major this blog might not exist and that would be a shame.

That said, I don't know if I feel I've learned that much in college. In school we are required to learn a lot of information so we can take a test or write a paper, which is what Montaigne talks about in this essay. As Seneca said, "We are taught for the schoolroom, not for life." When I leave with my diploma will I really walk away any better off than I was when I came here? I will, but I'm not sure any of those things I've learned come from the classes I've taken or if they come from the experiences I've had. Life experiences. Experiences I might have had with or without college.

"We allow ourselves to lean so heavily on other men's arms that we destroy our own force." Is this the burnout I've experienced over the last year? Maybe. I feel like I'm constantly told what to think about something, what to see. I used to have my own opinions but now I have to prove everything I say using someone else's words. It's mind numbing.

Questions:
1. If you're in school do you feel like we are fed knowledge without learning anything of value?
2. If you're out of school what do you think you came away with besides a degree?

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Right now I'm still having that experience you always have at the beginning of the semester where everything is new and exciting and awesome. Today has been extra great because my first class is about comic books, my second class is taught by a professor I love, and my third class is piano. And I got home at 3:40 which is earlier than I ever got home last semester (I actually get to make dinner for my fiance for once!) so I just have good feelings all around. I didn't even mind buying textbooks this afternoon, see pictures below for happy faces with textbooks.

To be fair, I had to buy The Best American Comics 2010 and Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book

for my comic book class and I actually wanted the books, so I didn't mind forking over the cash for them. I will be less enthusiastic about purchasing my entrepreneurship books tomorrow. I'll probably be pretty cranky about the whole thing.

This is also the post where I say my brain is still scrambled from my trip, so I probably won't be on my normal schedule again until next week. I need a few days to write posts, get organized, figure out how exactly my post schedule is going to go this year. All fun stuff I know. But now I'm off to enthusiastically do my homework before the excitement wears off!

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I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Click on the image to make it bigger!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Sorry the text is rather small, these comics are really the only time I've published any of my art online so I'm getting the hang of changing everything in Photoshop. Click the image to make it larger.

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After my post on Thursday about avoiding finals I gave studying on Saturday the good old college try. I got some of my paper done, but not nearly enough. This afternoon I'm going to lock myself up in the library and I won't come out until I have at least 1.5 papers done and my reading for Monday. But this morning I'm going to relax a little bit, do some reading and eat some food. Maybe after a little relaxation I'll feel better equipped to plunge into paper writing. Maybe I'll pick up a peppermint latte or something to make myself feel extra prepared.

I'm not sure how other students are, but I really have to coax myself into studying for finals. The week before finals is probably about the worst week because the end is so close. I love actual finals week because you don't have to go to class, so you can just relax and study all week! This is especially true for me this semester because I only have one big final exam (anthropology, the bane of my existence) so for the entirety of finals week I will just work, relax, and study for that stupid exam, which have to do very, very well on. Don't be surprised if I start tweeting about skulls all the time.

If you haven't yet, check out my review of Heart with Joy. I really enjoyed this book and my review doesn't do it justice. I also did a post about Gifts for English Majors you should check out for your holiday shopping. Yesterday I did an Awesome Essays post about and essay called Speaking American, which I think all of you will enjoy because you love language!

Thanks everyone for your overwhelming congratulations about my engagement. I'm obviously very excited about it! We're not planning to get married until after we graduate so it will be a year and a half, and for now I'm just excited about being engaged.

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Alas, it is the time of the semester where I make a post about why I'm not posting. The excuse, as always, is finals. But actually I haven't been getting much work done towards finals. I have several excuses for why and if you stick around until the end of the post you'll hear some very exciting news.

1. You can play Snake on Facebook now. I discovered this around 12:30 AM Thursday morning. I felt pretty good about my score of 300 until I saw a friend of mine got 760. 760!

2. True Blood. I started watching True Blood at the beginning of the semester and now I'm almost done with Season 2. True Blood fans will understand why I'm getting nothing done, because Season 2 is addictive. Also, Netflix in general will probably contribute to me failing all of my final papers and exams.
3. My house is messy and I can't concentrate on homework until it's clean. But I don't feel like cleaning. So no homework is getting done.

4. I really, really hate biological anthropology and my hatred for my anthropology class is poisoning my drive to do anything else. (My professor actually showed us this picture in class, it's not just a random Neandertal picture.
5. I got engaged. Yeah, for real. So now my head is in the clouds and I will surely find it difficult to concentrate on much of anything for at least another twenty-four hours. Also, when you post on Facebook that you are engaged you get one thousand comments and your phone goes dead from all the excitement. This has been my day so far. Love it.

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Last year around this time I made a list of Gifts for English Majors. Another year has gone by and there are a lot of new things out there for English majors, so I thought I would make an updated list for the English majors (or book lovers) in your life.

1. McSweeney's and Believer combo subscription. For ninety dollars you can get a whole year's worth of awesome literary goodness. I've been a Believer subscriber for one year now and even though it has a hefty price tag, I haven't regretted it at all. The Believer is an almost monthly publication (nine issues) that has book reviews, comics, columns, and literature. They also have special issues throughout the year. I don't subscribe to McSweeney's (yet), but it's a fantastic literary magazine with great contributing writers. A year's subscription gets you four issues, which is basically like getting four books in the mail. Speaking of which, McSweeney's also has a Book Release Club for $100.

2. Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook

is a book I reviewed last spring. It's super cheap ($6 on Amazon) and will give any English major hours of fun. Ever since I reviewed it I've lent it out to at least four people and everyone loves it. For more info on this book check out my review of it.

3. Moleskine Passions Book Journal

is another item I reviewed earlier this year and I absolutely love it. It's a great way for any reader to keep track of their notes from the books they read. I use this for school to keep track of the main ideas from books so by the end of the semester I can return to those notes and remind myself of the main points of the book. Check out my review of the journal for more info.

4. Penguin Classics Hardcover Collection

. I'm not suggesting you buy the entire $200 set, but a favorite book out of this collection would make a nice gift for an English major. I, of course, have my eye on Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Several stores have these on sale for less than $15 right now, so it's a good time to get them.

5. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4

, because English majors have to have fun too. I can just see myself coming home after a long day of school and work, curling up in front of the television to play with my Harry Potter LEGOs. That actually sounds very nice.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Hello fellow readers! I can't believe it but I only have four more days until Thanksgiving Break and I register for classes this week. I'm extremely ready for this semester to be over with. I don't know what's up but this semester has gotten me in such a funk as far as reading, blogging, and general attitude goes. I've gotten more in touch with other things I love though, like art and music. I'm so looking forward to a week off so I can get a rest and some good reading and blogging in before winter break.

I've actually been spending quite a bit of time on blogging lately, but it's been the behind the scenes stuff you don't know about. I'm trying to figure out how to improve the sound on my vlogs using Audacity, which is why there haven't been any vlogs recently. I hate that buzzing sound the built-in camera makes on my laptop. I also recently got Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, and I've been trying to figure out design stuff and how to edit some comics I want to post on here. And I've been considering moving to Wordpress.org-- which is a nightmare to even think about but I feel I would be happier there. If anyone knows about any good guides I could use for any of the above topics please let me know!

This week was all about writing as I (still) try to catch up on National Novel Writing Month. I did a video update and shared some of what I have. I also talked about the essay Walking With an Essayist and wrote a review of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

How was your week?

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I'm approaching week ten of the semester and I honestly have never felt this burnt out before. I really don't have that heavy of course load this semester, but I feel exhausted. It might partially be living off campus for the first time, or maybe I'm just feeling burnt out because I'm a junior and feel like being done. Or maybe I'm just looking forward to winter break more than I have before because I'm going on an awesome vacation. My boyfriend and I are going backpacking through Amsterdam, Berlin, and Munich and I am so excited. I've never been to the Netherlands or Germany before so I'm sure there will be a lot for us to see and do. Have any of you been to any of these places? What would you suggest for us?

As for reading I've been working diligently on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

for the readalong next week, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

for a new feature I'm going to start, and The Book Thief

simply because it is awesome. I have a lot of plans for the week I do The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay readathon, and I'm really excited to see what all of you think about the posts. The book has made me remember my own comic drawing I did when I was in high school and I was inspired to start up again. I was really into art in high school but kind of quit when I got to college. My comic drawing style isn't very complex and obviously relies on words a lot more because I'm a better storyteller than artist, but it's something I enjoy working on. I'm thinking about posting some of these comics on here once I get back into the hang of it.

This week I reviewed Slouching Towards Bethlehem and Splendor. I celebrated my one year blogiversary, talked about my recent struggles with writing, and talked about an Awesome Essay: How to Write About Africa.

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When I started blogging I was extremely frustrated with my nonfiction writing class. I wanted to write, but I just didn't feel like anything was working. I didn't feel inspired or encouraged the same way I did in the first nonfiction writing class I took at Iowa as a freshman. So, as a lot of you know, I decided to take a break from writing. Or just a break from writing classes, because I'm one of those people who will just always write. After all, I'm a blogger. After a semester off and some time to think, I found myself turning back towards writing essays, so I decided to take another writing class this semester. To push myself even further, I decided to do a reading in conjunction with the literary magazine I work on.

Four weeks after volunteering to read I am sitting in front of my computer frantically trying to get something out. I have several finished essays I could fall back on, things I've written in past classes and edited. But I just want to have something new. Something really great. I wrote one essay my freshman year that I really loved and ever since then I've just been trying to get back to that essay. Although I reread the essay over the summer, and found several things I wanted to revise. So even that essay wasn't the best it could be.

Maybe I'm being overly critical of myself. When I do read an essay I've written or have someone else read they usually so lots of really good nice things about it. But... I don't know. I'm just having a hard time writing the way I used to. I have a lot of ideas, which makes it that much more frustrating. I write down idea on top of idea on top of idea. Then I sit in front of my computer to type and... nothing. Blank stare. Flashing line. Wordless.

I don't aspire to be a writer. It'd be cool to get an essay published and so on, but that isn't really what I'm pushing towards. I don't feel as if that is what I'm called to do. So why do I have to take is so seriously? If it's just a hobby then why the obsession. I don't know.

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This was my first week back to school and I'm already ready for a break. I was talking with a friend earlier this week and I admitted that this semester is the least excited for school I have ever been. It's not that I don't like my classes or that I'm not looking forward to school. I guess I'm just pretty neutral about the whole thing. But I can't really stay neutral, because life is already getting crazy and busy. For instance, last Sunday I had my first meeting of the year for the literary magazine I'm on. Sunday! Before school even started! I was dumbfounded. And since then I've had to work at the student organization fair (only a half hour, but still) gone to all of my classes, drop a class, work, do quite a bit of a reading. This of course seems like quite a lot, because instead of doing my homework this week I've mostly been reading Mockingjay. Great way to start off the year. I did do my homework, I just didn't do it when I should have. Luckily Mockingjay is in the past now, and I'm sure I will have an abundance of evening hours to work on my studies...

But no seriously, I actually don't think my classes are going to be that bed this semester. Two of my classes focus on essays, which is lovely because essays are usually no longer than 30 pages, which is much better than the 60 pages of Victorian literature I was reading every night last semester. Another class is literary history and poems, which is also not too difficult to get through. My Human Origins class has about a chapter of reading the week and the reading is fairly short, and my Nonprofit class is... well I don't want to discount the Management Organization department at this fine university so I just won't say anything about that.

Yesterday I actually felt excited about this whole school thing though, because Thursdays this semester are about the greatest schedule day I've ever had in the history of my college career. I work from 8:30-12:30 in the library, then I go to my piano class for an hour. Piano isn't as terrifying as I thought it would be and I was pleased to find out there wasn't much for me to learn this week because I can already read music in treble and bass clef. After piano I had an hour so I went to the practice rooms to practice piano. Also wonderful. I was really interested in music and making music when I was younger but kind of lost that towards the end of high school. I really missed it and piano is something I've always wanted to learn. So I am! Feels good to do something just because you want to. After practicing I headed to my Nature Writing class. The class meets twice weekly and every Thursday we meet at an outdoor location. So I just got to explore the trees and outdoor things for about a half hour, then we all came to talk about what we had seen. Awesome. Ah I love Thursdays.

So maybe there is something to look forward to in all of this.

I haven't gotten a lot of reading done this month because I've been so busy packing and unpacking. I just moved into my first place, my first townhouse actually, two weeks ago and I've been busy making everything look the way I want it to. There are still a few things I want to change but I'm happy with the way things look for now. I tried to make a comfortable reading place in every room of the house and I wanted to share where I'm doing my reading and blogging with all of you!

The picture is pretty dark but I've been using this spot a lot lately. No, this is not my bed, it's a day bed in my office. This is a really nice place to read because it's right by a window so I get a lot of natural sunlight and usually don't even have to turn the ceiling light on to read, unless it's night of course. Also, since this is my designated reading bed it seems like it's easier for me to stay awake in it than it is in the bed I sleep in every night.

This is the living room with, as you can see, all of my books. I haven't done a whole of reading in here and I think that's partially because there is no ceiling light so at night it's rather difficult to read and I haven't been able to use it a lot during the day. It's a great spot for watching movies though!

This is probably my favorite place to read "in the house." My porch. The chairs are actually pretty comfy and there is a nice table for me to put my tea while I'm reading. The porch looks out to a street, but there are a few trees around and I like watching the squirrels do their acrobatic flips.

This is the bed, where I naturally do quite a bit of reading. I made sure to have lamps by the bed so I can read by lamplight and then just turn them off when I get too tired to keep reading.

Not a lot of reading gets done here, but I do quite a bit of blogging here as you can tell. It's where I'm at right now!

This is the dining room where I do a lot of eating, but I also do the majority of my blogging here. At least that has been the case the past couple of weeks. I blog a lot in the morning before I go to work and I like to sit here and have my breakfast and blog.

So this is where all the magic happens! Where do you like to read or blog?

I that Vasilly had done a post on what books she had to read this semester at her blog 1330v. I thought this was such a great idea I had to steal the idea to use here! I'm taking seven classes this semester but two of them are business classes and therefor not really that interesting, so I'll just skip those books (the classes are Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness I and Foundations of Entrepreneurship in case you were wondering).

I'm taking a class called Film and Literature that is all about visual essays. For this class we're going to watch a film essay every week and have other essays that we read. I was really excited when I saw the book list for this class because it included some books I've wanted to buy for awhile. This includes The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present

and The Lost Origins of the Essay

. These are both humongous essay collections that will take me forever to get through, so I'm really excited I'll be required to read from them this semester. We're also reading Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: The American Classic, in Words and Photographs, of Three Tenant Families in the Deep South

. I'm not really sure what this one is about other than it deals with sharecroppers from the South. The final book for this class is The Pleasure of the Text

by Roland Barthes. This one appears to be about why people read, it's a very small book, only 80 pages so I'm interested to see what it's about.

The second English class I'm taking is Literature and the Book: Renaissance Texts as Technology. There are no books for this class but we will do a lot of readings online. I'm planning on using my nook to take the pdf's with me to class so I'll be sure to let everyone know how that goes. Even though we don't have books I know we're going to read Shakespeare, Donne, and Spenser, as well as texts about how reading formats have changed. I looked at the syllabus for this class yesterday and we're taking seven field trips!

The final English class I'm taking is Advanced Nonfiction Writing: Nature Writing. An opening just came up in this class yesterday and I was thrilled because I waited all summer for it to happen. I love nature writing and I'm excited to do some of my own. I'm also excited because while this class meets twice a week, only one meeting is actually in a classroom. The other meeting every week is at an outdoor location. For this class we're reading Nature Writing: The Tradition in English

, which appears to be an anthology of nature writing. A quick glance at some of the writers has me excited because they include Thoreau and Annie Dillard who I know I enjoy.

I'm taking an anthropology class that we're using the textbook Introduction to Physical Anthropology

for. I don't have much to say about that one. I'm also taking piano lessons but as far as I know there isn't a book for that yet.

I'd also just like to mention where I purchased the majority of my books. I rent expensive textbooks but for my book for English classes I just Better World Books. I'm mentioning this simply because I support this company. They offer free shipping in the United States and they use the money they get from the books to support global literacy organizations. If you have to buy textbooks anyway you might as well support a great organization as well.

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Last Friday was my last day at the State Historical Society. I logged about 100 hours over the course of the summer, and I learned a lot. I started my internship there because I was considering becoming an archivist. After spending a whole summer there I decided that archives are probably not the vein of library science I want to pursue. There are a couple of reasons why.

The first reason is that it seemed like the archivists at the State Historical Society didn't have a whole lot of interaction with the public. They handled queries but most of our queries came in through phone or email. I think at first I was attracted to the field of archives because it wasn't with a lot of people interaction, but after spending the summer there I realized that I actually like people (I know, I was amazed too).

Another reason is that archivists have to spend ridiculous amounts of time on stupid projects that are not interesting at all. I know all librarians have to deal with boring stuff but the project I was working on this summer was humongous. Three of us were working on it and one of the archivists came in one the weekends to work and when I left they informed me they were about half done. Some of the stuff we got in had no historical significance at all. Like Christmas cards. They might be important to the person who gave them to us, although I doubt it because otherwise he probably wouldn't have given them to us. Basically, the archives kind of seem like a landfill.

Overall, I enjoyed my time at the State Historical Society and I am so glad I tried out archives because now I know what the job is actually like. This was my first internship and I'm only halfway through school so I still have time to try out a lot of other jobs. My time was not wasted at all, I learned a lot about the process and just about libraries and archives in general, and I came away with a personal decision that it wasn't for me. I say my first internship was a success.

It's hard to believe I've already been working on my internship for a month. This week was by far the most fun and interesting week I've had yet. I'm pretty shy, but I feel like I have finally broken out of my shell a little bit at work and have been talking to my coworkers quite a bit. There was a retirement party and potluck on Tuesday for a bunch of people I didn't know, but all of us archives people sat together and chatted. There was a volunteer there as well who used to work in the archives. That seems to be a common thing at the State Historical Society. People retire, but then they come back as volunteers. I think that is a pretty good sign that they like their jobs. Thursday we all went to lunch at this place downtown called Lucca and I had an awesome (and slightly strange) sandwich. Brie provolone, mayo, and vegetables.

On Tuesday I also got a bit of a tour of the State Historical Society. It's weird that I've been there so many times but never realized how much behind the scenes action there is. I went to the reading room, which was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be, and met the reference librarian up there. The reading room still has a card catalog! That was about enough to make me SQUEE. I also met an archivist who worked with photographs and a few other people. It took some time out of my day and was a nice break from the usual going through boxes.

But I did find some weird stuff in the boxes this week. To name one, I find a mask that was made out of a photograph of a person's face and then cut out and attached to a rubber band. I pulled it out and asked everyone else if they knew who the guy was since I figured he was probably some political guy (the boxes I'm going through I related to politics) but no one knew who he was. It's a mystery. I also found this lovely cartoon (excuse the bad cell phone picture).

It wasn't all fun and games though. I did end up finding two of the worst death certificates I'd seen so far. It was a twenty-five-year-old woman who was shot by her husband. The next certificate was a man's name so I figured it was the husband killing himself. No. He shot his three-year-old son. Ugh, I felt sick when I saw that.

I've been a bit absent in the blogging world lately, but there are many reasons why. This past week has been nothing but rising and falling emotions, and just when I think everything has hit the lowest point possible something good happens to pull me out of my slump. It has truly been the weirdest week ever. It mostly has to do with internships, jobs, classes, and grades. I didn't get an internship I'd applied for but then I heard back about a great volunteer archiving opportunity for me this summer. Just when I figured out I could do that I couldn't find away to get home for the interview for this volunteer project. Then I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to figure that out, including getting rides and getting work off. And that's just what got the ball rolling- there have been many more since then.

This is weird for me though. For most of my life it has been my experience that the worst stuff always comes at once and there are only really little things that help pull you out of that slump. This week has not been like that. It has been like humongous things get ruined but then really, really awesome things replace it. This has been thinking (once again) that my mom was right (don't tell her!) when she said everything happens for a reason. I don't think I ever really bought into that until this week. It seems like it's true really. I haven't been getting things I thought I really wanted, but I have been getting unexpected things that are really better for me.

So what about you? Do you think everything happens for a reason? Have experienced these weird ups and downs and all arounds (in about a three day span?)

Today's post is something really different and I'm very excited about it. About a week ago I was alerted about this video project called Far, a series of eight short films set to music. These films were created by seven students USC's School of Cinematic Arts and another film student from DePaul. The music in the video is from indie rock band Filligar (college kids out of Dartmouth and Hamilton College!), and they were actually the people who connected me to this video. The video they sent to me has six literary references and it is extremely well made. Also, the music is great, I've been watching these videos for a week so I can hear the songs!

They kind of remind of Margot and the Nuclear So and So's. The guys from Filligar have also been nice enough to offer a t-shirt to the first five people who email them five of the six literary references made in this video. I got five of the six so I'm sure all you can too. If you would like to enter this competition please don't leave a comment with the five literary references here, instead email the list to filligar AT gmail DOT com. This should be open until I update the post saying it is closed. You can check out their t-shirts in the Filligar store and if you like Filligar's music then you should check out their Facebook fan page.