The Best Part of Being an English Major

So, I was just getting ready to write about this amazing book that I just finished, when I got distracted by the fact that the BYU Bookstore isn't waiting until the week before classes start to publish the booklists on-line. Not all the professors have submitted their book lists yet, so I wouldn't take this as the final word quite yet (for all you BYU students out there), but as I was looking at my book list I got really happy for a couple of reasons.

1) In one of my classes we're reading 14 books over the semester. It's my children's lit class and I couldn't be happier... sure I have some sports books that I'm not super excited about, but there are some really excellent novels that I am excited about and that were already on my to-read list. I've actually heard that we'll end up reading 30 books for this class, so I'm excited to get to read all those good kids books I've been wanting to read.

2) I already own some of the books. One of the best things about being an English major is the fact that you can read the same novel in more than one class. I've read several books more than once and I've learned that if there's a book that's particularly defining of a generation, I should hold on to it, because I'll probably read it again. This is great because it cuts down on my homework time and the cost of my books. Plus I usually have already written a paper on the book which I can just revisit and use as the basis for another paper.

3) My number one favorite thing though is the cost per book. While most of my friends spend over $100 for a single text book, I get to buy 25-30 books for about $10-15 per book (and cheaper if I can get it off Amazon or used). When I walk out of the bookstore it's with a full backpack (or 2 if I can enlist someone to go with me) and a happy heart. Sure sometimes I get a little overwhelmed looking at the sheer number of pages I have to read in the next four months (and even more overwhelmed when I think about the number of pages I have to read besides thos books--research for papers, online supplementary material, etc), but mostly I'm happy. I'd rather be reading any day.