So I actually stopped…

So I actually stopped and counted. 7 modern novels. 10 historical texts -- some of which are poetry, and quite short. That's all well and good. But 20 critical texts left. Eep eep eep. It's not quite one book a day, but it's not so far off. I knew this whole whip-out-two-choose-your-own-adventure-novels-over-the-holidays plan was going to come back and bite me in the ass. I'm not sorry I did it...I think.

Okay, so instead of panicking, we're making a plan. The plan is to finish the novels, all of them, in the next two weeks. By 3/21. That should really be do-able; some of the books are quite short. Then take a week to make notes, review notes, skim through some critical material on those novels, so that by the end of March, I can talk reasonably coherently about any of them. If I feel like it, I can read one of the more slender critical texts or two, but I should basically be focusing on getting the novels down. Then in April, all critical theory, all the time. Try to really understand (rather than guessing) the theoretical connections between these people. It shouldn't be too hard; most of them I've at least looked at before, in either my theory class or my post-colonial class. It should mostly be review. We hope.

I'm not sure it's a good plan, but it's a plan, and if I stick to it, at least I can say I gave it a good try. And I feel a little less panicky, having a plan.

I didn't go to the gym yesterday, as it turned out. But I went today. And I paid those bills. So apparently, I'm at least semi-capable of sticking to a plan.

I love plans.

Finished Malory yesterday. A light dose of Shelley today. Diving into Ivanhoe tomorrow.

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