In continuance of my post about Robert Penn Warren's book, I think I have to renounce my statement about not liking it. I don't think the content of the book is the problem, but the fact that it's a book I have to read for a class. The deadline that I have to have the book read by always makes me not like the book because it takes me so long to read and I get frustrated at myself. That frustration gets reflected onto my opinion of the book, amd I detest it by the time I'm finished with it. However, some of the time I keep the book because it's a classic, and I know someone will be assigned it later on. Already, my siblings call me every once in awhile and ask me whether I had to read this book that they now have to read and whether I ever bought a copy of it so they don't have to buy it. Little do they know that in the past I've only kept classics that I've felt some measure of fondness for, and I've only come to this realization only a short while ago that I should keep all the classics I read.

Years after I keep the book on the shelf because it's a classic and have kept it with me through several moves, I start remembering it, and because the hate associated with it has worn off with age, I often pick it up again and find myself enjoying it because I'm reading it for pleasure and not for an assignment.

Thus, I'm halfway through All The King's Men and hate it because I have to have the entire thing read by Tuesday. However, I will keep it because I've found I've enjoyed parts of it (after I made the post about it); I don't think I'll end up selling it because we won't analyze it to death in class. That's also another reason to hate a book; I've had no desire to own a copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell because I've read it for four different classes over the years and had to analyze it all four times. We'll probably end up owning it anyways because Just'In's never read it and is curious as to what it's about. Plus, no doubt my kids will end up reading it in their classes. sigh. There are some parts of our vast book collection I won't have to like.
greendryad: (Default)
( Dec. 2nd, 2006 06:22 pm)
I love the closing phrases on letters. You know, the place most people just automatically put "Sincerely". I don't know if that thing actually has a name. This is a moment when I wish Mrs. Boggess, my high school mentor and English teacher, was around.

Most people put "Sincerely"... this is ridiculous, because you can put anything you want there. That's the biggest area of feeling in any kind of letter. Even in a regimented business letter, you can state how you feel toward the person with that one word and get away with it; however, if you say, "Jokingly" or "Mockingly", you probably won't get the job, unless you're a comedian or a clown or a carnival mirror.

My peak at using creative closing adverbs would be in the letters Just'In and I wrote back and forth while we were dating and engaged. My favorite part of the whole letter was choosing what to put on that last line before my name; I've kept all those letters. I suppose it's just reminiscent of the lines in the love letters between Abigail and John in the musical 1776: "I am and will always be yours, yours, yours." It gives me chills. I'm a girl, what can I say?
.
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags