Micro-Activity # 2 Responding to Bunn

For a long time I have found myself to like reading, especially if the book is interesting to read or it has a very gripping story line to it. My taste in terms of books and such are categories concerning things like Thriller, True Crime, Mystery, Suspense, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, and etc. I love to read things that have some kind of twist to it. Usually you expect one thing or the other from a character or the plot but in turn it will be the complete opposite. But at the same time it also depends on how the writer goes about creating this plot twist that keeps the writer entertained and engaged in the book’s outcome. My reading challenges are simply finding a book that is that interesting to keep me interested. Sometimes I get bored of the book if it seems like everything is repetitive and the story is predictable. I can read for around 2 and a half hours without thinking about my phone but then again it depends on the book that I’m reading, it may be longer than that. I took it upon myself to read “The Hobbit” by J.R.R Tolkien. After reading for 2 hours I got distracted, I went to the fridge then proceeded to check my phone. Though I managed to stay engaged in the book longer than I expected of myself I find that technology has a means of always pulling you back in but I am teaching myself to be less reliant on my phone and pay attention to what is around me or in front of me. 

One specific moment that I found useful would have to be the section of the Bunn’s text labeled “What are some questions to ask before you start reading”. Now in terms of how I read I feel like I don’t ask enough questions about the text and how they developed the ideas or consider the context of these questions asked of me. The lines I have identified are “One of the things that several students mentioned to do first, before you even start reading, is to consider the context surrounding both the assignment and the text you’re reading.” I found this important because as I stated earlier I tend to focus less on the context of the text and more so on assignment.  Sometimes I tend to speed through a lot of the work I do if  I’m rushing or procrastinated to the deadline of a project. I’d usually skim through the entire text and just rush to the assignment so that I don’t miss anything and lose points on my assignment. Regardless of that fact I’d finished on time and yet still I’d end up losing out on points that I could’ve gotten because I rushed to finish the assignment. Bunn begins his article on page 71 by giving a description of  being fresh out of college with a job at a famous theater. In his description he detailed his attire to his job and what his job required of him daily. I believe he began his article this way to depict how important and necessary it is to focus on the words, phases, and sentencing of a text. To emphasize that it is important to make these connections with what the author has written to allow a better understanding of the text. A list of questions that Bunn quotes that we think about include:  What is it about the way this text is written that makes you feel and respond the way you do?, What do you think of this technique?, Do you think it is effective to begin the essay with a quote?, What if the essay began with a quote from someone else?, What if it was a much longer quote from President Obama, or a quote from the President about something other than the war?, Would you want to try this technique in your own writing?”

In reference to Toni Morrison’s ‘The Reader as Artist’, I think Morrison means that in many ways reading is a skill to acquire for those that use it solely for an educational purpose or for the cause of something outside of education which can be perceived as Art. Reading as an art can be viewed as having read an article for the sole purpose of deciphering each detail in the words, focusing on the deeper meaning in the author’s words and looking outside of literal language but more so focusing on figurative language and how it impacts the text. Morrison’s description of reading as “an art” changes the meaning of the activity of reading because it makes one appreciate the deeper meanings in the texts you read. A quote from Morrison that I found to be interesting would have to be “Reading as art, not Art (once, depressingly called “critical” reading) is another matter. Like the avid devotion to other arts, it develops over time in any number of ways, takes all sorts of routes, and has many origins.” The art of reading in itself makes you question the author’s thought process and reasoning for producing the text. Her own ideals of what reading means to her and how it has developed her as well as helped her understand more.