Prof. Miller| ENG 1101 - OL62 | Fall 2020

Micro-Activity # 2: Responding to Bunn

Me as a good reader is something i would like to be, but i am not. I don’t read many books and have completed at most 40 in my life time.  This is due to the fact that most books put me to sleep or make me feel so tired I keep reading a sentence over and over again without noticing how many times i have read that one sentence. This is not the case for every book i have read though. There are few books that I have completed that when i read them i couldn’t wait to read the next chapter and I lost track of time There was this one book I read, which looking back at it now may have been my favorite book of all time. I read the book over five times and never once got bored of it. My taste of books are more towards the fictional stories. Unlike non fiction books they don’t put me to sleep as much. If I really don’t enjoy a particular book I believe I loose focus very quick.

Me as a good writer is something my previous teachers have said I have a very high potential to be. This may have changed now as I haven’t done any writing over the quarantine. Something that caught my eye was how Bunn read exactly how i did when distracted. On page 72 he says “As I struggled to read in this environment, I began to realize that the way I was reading—one word at a time—was exactly the same way that the author had written the text. I realized writing is a word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence process.”  Here when Bunn read sentences and words over and over again he understood how the writer had came to create these sentences and eventually create the book. Reading sentences over and over again is something i already do but what i would like to incorporate to my reading is understand how the writer created their book. I feel that if i do this it will strengthen me as a writer and i can be influenced by their ways of writing. Bunn starts page 71 with a story of when he worked at a theater and read to pass time. I believe he chose to start this way to relate to most readers who read to pass time. He also started like this as it plays a big part of why he wrote the essay. The distractions allowed him to truly understand the writer and even use the writers techniques. This is something he encourages in his essay. Some questions Bunn suggests we think about are, what the authors purpose is for the piece and who the intended audience is for the piece.

What Morison means about ready as a skill is that it helps us understand the meaning of the text and what the author is trying to convey. Reading as an art takes time and helps us understand the authors writing style and it conveys emotions and thoughts. Morrison states “My own reading skills were enhanced in schools, but my pleasure in, my passion for the art of reading came long before. It came in childhood and it began with listening…The result was a heavy reliance on my own imagination to provide detail” This shows how reading as an art can take time and requires passion.

1 Comment

  1. Prof. Suzanne Miller

    Sharif,

    I enjoyed reading your post. I’m wondering what the book is that you read five times! I would love to know the title. While all reading will not grab your attention like that book, I’m wondering if there are strategies you can use to help you stay interested in the reading process… think about it… I will be bringing up this question again to the whole class.

    I like that you reflected on Bunn’s moment in the theater, and you seem to relate to what he was saying there. Also, I can already see that you have a natural “voice”– meaning that language flows easily from your pen (or your keyboard). We will work with that natural ability over the course of the semester to strengthen your abilities as a writer! (And as a reader!)

    Finally, the quote you chose to highlight from the Morrison piece is excellent– this statement really illustrates the contrast between reading as a skill and reading as an art.

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