Exeposé Books helps you get your reading done!

It’s a new term and for many of us that means several new impossibly long reading lists. But what is the secret to keeping on top of that reading and still finding time to do other things occasionally? Lucy Forsey shares her advice…

As a first-year English student, I haven’t had any exams to worry about over the Christmas holidays. But the amount of reading that needs to be done is just short of making up for the lack of exams. One novel, nine poems, one essay on theory, one short story, three plays and that is all without secondary reading, sounds like a lot. And it is, whilst this only gets more intense as you get in to second and third year!  But it is also manageable, and this is how I’ve (kind of) stayed on top of it over the holidays…

1. Plan, plan, plan: Make a list! Sounds obvious I know, but it is so hard to lose track of what there is to be done. If you only focus on the primary texts to be read, you can easily over-relax and when you get to finding out about the secondary reading, there is no time left to do it. Prioritise the texts on your list too, and roughly plan the time you will need to read each text, just so you know that there’s a chance you can get it all done. That in itself relaxes you, and the less you stress, the more you are likely to get done!
2. Start off in the deep end: Read the longest, deepest and most difficult text first. When you have more time, and you’re more relaxed (so in context of term time, at the beginning of a period before the deadline), read the longest, hardest text first. For instance, start off with the long novel. You can chip away at that, instead of rushing it at the last minute in which case, let’s be honest, you’d sit there and think “I have no idea what is going on here”. Short stories and poems can be read in a day, so leave these kind of texts to the last minute if you have to.
3. Condense the jobs: Do secondary reading as you go along. It is tempting not to do secondary reading, oh so tempting… But if you do it as a supplement to the text you’re currently reading (maybe whilst you’re reading the primary text, or immediately after you’ve finished it), then it’s out of the way and you still reap the benefits of reading around the text.
4. Don’t burn the candle at both ends: Rest your brain! A mandatory 7 hours of sleep a night is crucial for the brain’s functioning. Students do a lot of thinking, working and stressing, so give yourself time to switch off, or you’ll burn-out! When you reach that stage, reading is impossible and you’ll only fall further behind which isn’t a great feeling.
5. Balance the introvert/extrovert you: Don’t lose sight of why you’re doing your degree. It’s easy to shrug off reading, especially as it can be hard to take out time, shut off the outside world and immerse yourself in a book when you have so many other things going on that could distract you. But remember the importance of studying, and especially if you’re English student remember your passion for reading. Tell your mates that you need to read for a few hours so you will be hard to get in contact with, and then just do it. Afterwards comes the time to be an extrovert!

Finally, just remember you can only do your best. You wouldn’t be at Exeter if you weren’t capable of studying to this level!

Lucy Forsey

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How can we get more kids reading?

Would your childhood have been the same without reading? For many people the answer would definitely be no, and yet increasing numbers of children are growing up without reading at all outside of school. Emma Lock looks at why this is happening and what can be done to prevent it…

Photo Credit: Christchurch City Libraries

A recent survey by the National Literacy Trust has found that the number of children reading outside school has dropped by almost 25% since 2005. The survey also picked up on increasing negative attitudes towards reading, with more than one in five of those responding saying that they would be ‘embarrassed’ if their peers caught them reading.

Of course, one survey is not a reason to panic about some kind of impending literary doom – reading is still a popular activity for many children, and hopefully it always will be. But this report did strike me as incredibly sad – my childhood wouldn’t have been the same without all the books I devoured, and I still have very fond memories of my favourites. The idea that some kids could be missing out on all those great literary experiences because they’re embarrassed to be seen with a book is frankly tragic. It highlights the wider issue of negative attitudes towards reading, something many will be aware of – particularly those of us who spent our childhood in the company of books and may have been on the receiving end of lazy stereotyping as a result.

There is a clear contradiction present in attitudes towards reading. We (rightly) place great importance on reading and everything it can do for children; but the word ‘bookish’ is still a derogatory term, and saying that a child ‘likes reading’ is laden with allusions to being quiet or dull. There is no point moaning about children not reading enough and then, in the next breath, dismissing those that do as being somehow boring or weird – that’s not going to persuade anyone.

Photo Credit: adwriter

The children’s fiction market is exciting and diverse, and it seems a massive waste for any child to feel unable to make the most of it. Children’s literature isn’t dominated by The Famous Five anymore – JK Rowling has been widely credited with bringing reading to a generation, and while reading has traditionally been seen as a ‘girly’ pursuit, in recent years the fiction market aimed at boys has progressed in leaps and bounds, particularly fuelled by authors such as Anthony Horowitz and Charlie Higson. The Twilight saga has done a similar thing for teenage girls; much as I might personally detest its helpless, co-dependent undead-chasing, there’s little arguing with the fact that it (and the litany of dubious vampire fiction it spawned) has made reading acceptable for an age group of girls often on the cusp of abandoning a childhood love of reading for their own undead-chasing activities.

Of course, there will always be some children who just don’t like reading, and that’s absolutely fine. What we need to do is make it OK for kids to like books, so that those who do like reading feel able to do so without worrying about whether people will judge them for it. It shouldn’t be any more embarrassing to be seen with a book than it is to be seen with a football or a hairbrush. It is a long shot – we’re going against generations of stereotypes and playground teasing here – but attitudes can be changed, and if it means that children feel happier and more comfortable reading, it’s definitely worth the effort.

The message is quite simple: books are awesome.

Emma Lock, Books Team

Let Your Reading Habits Turn Over A New Leaf

As seen in print! Emma Holifield, Books Editor, gives advice on how to keep reading, and enjoying it, when faced with the multiple distractions of university life…

Photo Credit: Rollins College

If you’re anything like me, you spent the summer before university devouring books you’d been wanting to read for months. Enjoyable? Yes. Trashy? Probably! But who cares? You could finally enjoy reading without feeling guilty about that abandoned copy of Hamlet or side-lined biology notes.

Results day finally comes. Whether Exeter was your top choice or you wound up here another way, I hope that you felt excited to have gained a place at such a fantastic institution.

Throughout summer, university emails come thick and fast. From eagerly awaited accommodation news (*cough* choose Lopes *cough*), to, more inexplicably, messages from Original Sin (How?! Did UCAS pass on my email address??), your inbox quickly becomes inundated with all things Exeter.

Inevitably, emails relating to why you’re actually coming to university find themselves in the pile: your degree.

Whatever your subject, you have no doubt received a daunting reading list and whether you rushed off to Amazon or groaned and ignored the message, you can only get away with using Spark Notes for so long. Eventually you will have to at least glance at the required reading.

Keeping up with this alongside other aspects of university means reading for fun often falls to the bottom of your priorities. By Christmas, when yet another reading list arrives, you may have begun to associate the written word with purely scholarly pursuits.

But, like other features of uni life, making sure you continue to enjoy reading is about adapting your habits.

Photo Credit: mjtinoco

DISCOVER THE CAMPUS:

 Admittedly, rain-free days in Exeter are rare. But on those few sunny days, there is no better place to enjoy a book than the rolling hills of the beautiful campus.

ALTERNATIVE TO TV:

The quicker you accept that Exeter’s internet isn’t great, the fewer flatmates you will alarm when you start screaming at your computer when Neighbours stops loading AGAIN! Just me? Whatever you’re trying to watch, turning to literary pursuits is much more relaxing than agitatedly watching your favorite show load painfully slowly.

BE PICKY:

With so little time to read for pleasure, if you’re still unenthused by page 100, stop. Get a friend to recommend something they enjoyed. It may even help you bond over shared interests.

 ‘FLASH FICTION’:

Short stories are a growing trend. The rise of Kindles has led to a focus on ‘flash fiction’ and ‘commuter novellas’ that can be read in the average time it takes to get to work. Although working in the real world can be ignored for now, the brevity of these short pieces makes them fantastic quick reads.

REVIST YOUR CHILDHOOD: Always wondered what happened to the Pevensies? Somehow never finished Harry Potter? Children’s classics are designed to quickly capture the imagination and will happily transport you away from essay stress. However, although your uni friends probably love these childhood favorites, it might be best to keep copies of Narnia on the down-low to start with!

 POETRY:

Poetry isn’t always short, (think The Odyssey!). However, since they are generally shorter than novels, poems are often just as insightful and well-crafted, if not more so due to their diminutive length.

 MAGAZINES:

 Rushing to get the latest glossy fashion mag may appeal to you. However, with the magazine world offering plenty of other choices, treating yourself to an issue on a topic that interests you is a great wordy way to while away an afternoon.

Make sure you don’t lose your enjoyment of reading and whenever you find yourself particularly enthused by a literary pursuit, keep us posted at Exeposé!

Emma Holifield, Books Editor

Knowledge is power, but is power restricting knowledge?

Photo credits to Kara Allyson

On the 11^th January 2013, Aaron Swartz was found dead in his New York apartment having taken his own life. The 26 year old programmer was a founder of the well-known website Reddit and had been part of the development process for RSS, an application which many of us come across in our daily internet usage. In addition to his web-based achievements, Swartz was also an advocate of ethics and political activism, co-founding the Demand Progress internet group which lead the fight against web censorship through the SOPA campaign.

More recently, Swartz launched an attack upon the exclusivity of academic content, specifically targeting journal archive JSTOR, a resource that our university is subscribed to, thus allowing us to access its content without personal charge. Swartz, who is described as “always and only working for (at least his conception of) the public good” had attempted to hack into, download and publicly distribute over 4 million articles from the archive, for which he was charged with over $1 million in fines and a potential 35 year prison sentence.

Just before his death, JSTOR announced that it would be making a large proportion of these articles free to access. I very much understand the need for academics to make a living through their work, but as investigator Alex Stamos stated in his testimony, Swartz’s extraction of material “from an unlocked closet” did not merit the sentence he was facing. There is now a “Read Online” function that essentially loans texts to members, allowing them three articles at a time without charge, but this change simply rendered Swartz’s attack futile and yet they continued his prosecution. It is hardly surprising that a man who had been a victim of depression for many years would have found this overwhelming and humiliating.

What can we as students take from this? As a humanities student, I find JSTOR invaluable, and I am certain that this feeling is fairly widespread through departments. Just take a moment to picture what your studies would be like if you were having to pay $25 US to look at an article that may have been useless to your work. We should certainly count ourselves lucky for being so privileged in this gift of information that others did not, and in some cases still do not possess.

In the last few weeks, we have seen a man who wished to extend this freedom of knowledge, persecuted into despair, his only crime described by Demand Process as a jail sentence for “checking too many books out of the library”. I would hesitate to call Swartz a martyr as the internet community has done, but I would certainly praise the activist for making such an impact. As much as I know I will return to JSTOR within weeks of writing this, my usage will now be tainted by the company’s poor timing in doing what was necessary to help expand the academic community, leading to the downfall of a great contemporary mind.

Liz Moore