In-class journal assignment #2

Journal #2

On Reading.

Some of my biggest frustrations come to me in daily life when I perceive myself as not reading enough. I’m currently reading William Vollmann’s The Royal Family about a private investigator in San Francisco that falls in love with “The Queen of the Whores,” the grand-madam of a ring of prostitutes.

But I don’t read enough of news, local or national; I don’t have too much time to keep up with the presidential campaigns. Wait, lemme make a list of all the things I read in a given day:

1. My clock that talks or crows like a rooster
2. My cellphone, the time and text messages I receive
3. The stack of mail and bills on the kitchen table
4. Various to-do lists that build up
5. The Royal Family, as mentioned above
6. The Internet:
   1. Livejournal: friends’ stuff, Momus, Albany events
   2. Flickr
   3. Facebook
   4. Various email accounts

1. Lots of memos and other documents that HVCC floats my way
2. Student journals, freewriting, essay drafts
3. Things I’ve written for songs
4. Lesson plans
5. Handouts/samples/COMP extras
6. Peter Elbow – Writing Without Teachers

I do a ton more writing and making and planning than I get to do reading!

If I had time I would read (more often):

1. The New York Times (online)

2. The Wire (magazine online)

3. Pitchfork

4. 234092378 other blogs that I’ve bookmarked

5. Der Spiegel

6. Times Union

7. Metroland

8. I like looking up other teacher blogs and reading about their classroom styling; their pedagogy

Sometimes I can’t read. Today I don’t think I came to life until about 1 PM. I gazed out the bus windows on the commute to HVCC and granted myself some time to think. Sometimes I spend all my time reading—either text or what other people are saying and I don’t get to think enough. Reading, writing, thinking. They need to balance or you’ll start twitching.