Semester 1 Reading Ladder – From August 21st, 2017 to January 16th, 2018

This Reading Ladder is a work in progress.

In Order of Least to Most Recent

 

  1. Othello – William Shakespeare (154 pages)
  2. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (311 pages)
  3. Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare (155 pages)
  4. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbra Kingsolver (546 pages)
  5. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini (372 pages)
  6. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (185 pages)
  7. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde (254 pages)
  8. “Family Furnishings” – Alice Munro (620 pages)
  9. Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur (204 pages)
  10. The Sun and Her Flowers – Rupi Kaur (256 pages)
  11. The Sun and Her Flowers – Rupi Kaur (256 pages)
  12. Hamlet – William Shakespeare (337 pages)
  13. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman (64 pages)
  14. The Stone Angel – Margaret Laurence (328 pages)
  15. The Stone Angel – Margaret Laurence (328 pages)
  16. The Tiger’s Wife – Tea Obreht (338 pages)
  17. Macbeth – William Shakespeare (249 pages)
  18. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling (223 pages)
  19. Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller (144 pages)
  20. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets– J. K. Rowling (251 pages)
  21. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban– J. K. Rowling (317 pages)
  22. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire– J. K. Rowling (636 pages)
  23. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix– J. K. Rowling (766 pages)
  24. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince– J. K. Rowling (607 pages)
  25. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows– J. K. Rowling (607 pages)
  26. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child– J. K. Rowling (327 pages)
  27.  “The Glass Roses” – Alden Nowlan (19 pages)
  28. “Horses of the Night” – Margaret Laurence (20 pages)
  29. “On the Rainy River” – Tim O’Brien (17 pages)
  30. “The Distance of the Moon” – Italo Calvino (16 pages)
  31. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini (372 pages)
  1. The Oscar Wilde Collection – Oscar Wilde (1,246 pages)

 

Total Pages Read So Far: 10,525 pages total. 10,525/21 weeks of reading = 501 pages per week. 478/7 days a week = approximately 72 pages per day.

Though my Reading Rate is not as high as it has been in the past, I accept that it has been limited not because of a lack of interest or a lack of dedication to reading, but because the Grade 12 workload – including extracurriculars – has taken up much of my time. Even though while school was in session, I was unable to read to my heart’s content, over the Fall Break and Winter Break, I did manage to get a lot of reading in, which was satisfying for me – after all, there’s nothing quite like the pleasure of losing yourself in a good book. Overall, while I am not disappointed by my current Reading Rate, I would like to see it increase over the course of Semester 2, as I will have a much lighter workload and will have more free time for reading.

Currently Reading: The Oscar Wilde Collection – Oscar Wilde (1,246 pages)

Top Three Books:

  • The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur: Rupi Kaur’s poetry has always stirred something within me, but I found that The Sun and Her Flowers in particular became a significant read for me. This truly was the right book at the right time – after having come back from Kenya this summer to a world that no longer made sense to me, this book helped give me a sense of stability. The poetry seemed to mirror my inner thoughts somehow, expressing how deeply saddening it is to witness world tragedies but also encouraging us to learn and grow because of them. The Sun and Her Flowers reflected my culture back at me in a time when I needed it, and all the floral imagery used throughout also resonated with me because it is through gardening that the women of my family connect and strengthen our relationships. I think this was one of those books that I was just meant to read, because it felt like it was given to me exactly when I needed it. In fact, I was so enthralled by it that I had to read it twice before I felt I was finally able to put it down.
  • The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence: I have loved this book since the first time I read it almost two years ago. It was because of this book that I felt as connected to my grandmother as I did when she was alive. This year, my grandmother passed away, and so The Stone Angel has become doubly significant for me, almost as if she speaks to me through this book. Like The Sun and Her Flowers, The Stone Angel was the right book for me at the right time in the sense that I needed to reread it twice after my grandmother’s death in order to make sense of what her loss meant to me. Hagar’s own physical and emotional entrapment parallels the circumstances of my grandmother’s life in such a way that I cannot help but love and appreciate this book.
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby is the most entertaining book I have read in a very long time. Not even once while reading did my attention wander because the story and the characters were so engaging. I was also fascinated by Fitzgerald’s use of colour throughout – colour significance in literature is something I am very interested in, and because The Great Gatsby was a gold mine for this, I was really able to enjoy myself while reading. I loved the details that were embedded into the narrative; when authors do this, I find that I become all the more absorbed in the world they have created for me. The Great Gatsby is not only incredibly well-written and impossibly captivating but is a powerful and emotionally resonant novel. It’s the kind of book that leaves you thinking about it long after you finish reading.

Goal for next term: I will read at least eight novels, four short stories, and three plays over the course of Semester 2; this is, however, my minimum requirement of myself. These minimum required readings will, hopefully, be supplemented by other texts as well. These novels, short stories, and plays may be selected from the following list (though they may also be chosen organically): I Am Malala (Malala Yousafzai), The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini), Prodigal Summer (Barbara Kingsolver), Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood), The Piano Man’s Daughter (Timothy Findley), The Princess Diarist (Carrie Fisher), The Bean Trees (Barbra Kingsolver), All The Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr), Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain),  Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte), Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury), Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain), The Hero’s Walk (Anita Badami), The Tempest (William Shakespeare), The Cellist of Sarajevo (Stephen Gallaway), The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (James Thurber), Flowers in the Attic Series (V. C. Andrews), Shawshank Redemption (Stephen King), and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey).

 


Image Citations:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=the+sun+and+her+flowers&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw3-r-7ODYAhVV3mMKHcKcC74Q_AUICigB&biw=1244&bih=579#imgrc=Z1YsXeb83zBzxM:

https://www.google.ca/search?biw=1244&bih=535&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=NzpgWpXYE9PEjAPL4J24Cg&q=the+stone+angel&oq=the+stone+angel&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l2j0i30k1l2j0i24k1l6.68067.69310.0.69538.10.8.0.0.0.0.296.1292.0j3j3.6.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..4.6.1291…0i8i30k1.0._XT5QMoo9X8#imgrc=2KKh2KNu-ykgPM:

https://www.google.ca/search?biw=1244&bih=535&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=fzpgWtOgApbMjwO6v4rwBg&q=the+great+gatsby&oq=the+great+&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0l2j0i67k1j0l7.49694.50940.0.51765.6.6.0.0.0.0.231.743.0j2j2.4.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..2.4.740….0.kp_5Ae_c-9c#imgrc=H-4FA6uPWSnpSM:

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