Welcome to the class! We will be spending the semester reading and writing, exploring ways to think about reading and writing, reading different types of writing, and writing in different ways. To begin the semester, we will be reflecting upon and discussing the following questions:

How are reading and writing important to you in your everyday life?

What is similar about the experiences or practices of reading and writing?

What is different about reading and writing?

Please think about an experience that you had with either reading or writing that stands out to you (it can be one that was positive or negative, and any type of reading and/or writing).

What was it about the experience that makes it stand out in your life?

We will also have time to respond to the following quotes during class as well as return to them throughout the semester:

Quotes on Writing:

“ If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Toni Morrison

“ We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” Anais Nin

“ The first draft of anything is shit.” Ernest Hemingway

“ When you write, it’s like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your fingers have still not perfected the task. Some of the braids are long, others short. Some are thick, others thin. Some are heavy. Others are light.” Edwidge Danticat

“ A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than other people.” Thomas Mann

“ You can make anything by writing.” CS Lewis

“ Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” Virginia Woolf

“ Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” Barbara Kingsolver

Quotes on Reading:

“ A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” George RR Martin

“ We read to know we are not alone.” William Nicholson

“ If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” Oscar Wilde

“ Books are a uniquely portable magic.” Stephen King

“ You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Ray Bradbury

“ Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” Charles William Eliot

“ A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” William Styron

“ We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel… is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.” Ursula K Le Guin

“ Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you’ll never know where you’ll get an idea from…” Malcolm X

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