dorothean: detail of painting of Gandalf, Frodo, and Gimli at the Gates of Moria, trying to figure out how to open them (Default)
dorothea ([personal profile] dorothean) wrote in [community profile] a_reader_is_me2011-05-23 07:54 pm

Intro post

Name: [personal profile] dorothean
Goal: Finish various readings in American history before my fall classes start.
Definition of "book": Ordinary book, or, where I'm going to be taking notes, a book chapter or an academic essay.
Books read so far: 0/12 books, 0/18 chapters of Capitalizing on Change by Stanley Buder (well--I've read a lot but will be re-reading), and 3/23 articles about Native American history.

A little about my goal and my reading habits: I'm trying to educate myself as much as possible before applying for a master's program in history. (I have a bachelor's degree in third-world/non-western history but want United States/North American history for what I'll be doing.) This summer, I am (1) taking an online course that requires the reading of some, but not all, of Capitalizing on Change, (2) working through a grad-level syllabus on Native American history given to me by the professor, and (3) trying to finish all the books I own that have to do with U.S. history that I haven't read yet.

I am treating each chapter in Capitalizing on Change (a book I don't like very much, but I'm reading it carefully for reasons that would be tl;dr to get into here) and each article in the syllabus as one "book" for the purpose of this challenge, since I'll be reading them all carefully and taking notes, especially on the syllabus readings. However, I won't be posting about any of that here; I'll just update the "books read so far" section to indicate my progress when I post about one of the actual books I've read.

I want to finish Capitalizing on Change by July 17, since that's when my summer course exam period begins, and everything else by August 17, which is when my fall semester begins and I'll have new readings.

As to my reading habits, I read pretty quickly and spend a lot of time reading, but I have been so busy lately that a challenge like this finally seems like a good idea to keep me on track with this goal.