We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together.
Ashley Schwieger
Hello everyone, I’m Ashley Schwieger (It’s pronounced SH-VY-GER and yes it’s German). I’m a junior and my major is English Education. I transferred here this fall from American River College in Sacramento where I earned an associate’s degree in Psychology. I came to Chico State because it’s actually the only school in northern California that offer’s my husband’s degree (Applied Computer Graphics) but it worked out really well because of the awesome English Education program.
Reading and Writing had always been a huge part of my life. In fact, when I got married, my wedding was literary themed (we used hundreds of books as table center pieces, props for photos, and we even had a ring book instead of a ring pillow). When I was younger I would beg and beg my parents to buy me books but they were never able to afford it and never had time to take me to the library. I would stay with my grandma on weekends, holidays, summers, and any other time I wasn’t in school so she would take me to a used book store to get books so I wouldn’t be bored. She would buy me a bunch of books that I could trade in for more when I was done with them. I eventually ran out of books I wanted to read at that store so she had to find others to take me to. If it wasn’t for my grandma I probably would have never excelled at reading and then writing as much as I did.
I really enjoyed the article by Szwed. There is so much variety in how and why we read and write that we are probably pretty oblivious to it in our daily lives. It always makes me laugh a little when my brother tells me that he hates reading because he does so much reading in his daily life that he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.
Something that Szwed touches on, that I would be really interested to learn more about is the economic influences and reasons for reading. He mentioned the “book culture” and then later talks about the sharing of books privately within the working class. While reading used to be something for the upper class and wealthier citizens it has spread to those in all economic situations and while I am unsure how much we will talk about these things in this class, I am very interested in how and why this happened. But it seems as if there are still economic factors that limit access to reading and extensive writing.
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One Reply to “Ashley Schwieger”
Hey Ashley,
Nice to hear you went to ARC. I worked in Rancho Cordova at an after school program and lived in Midtown and even took a creative writing class at Sac City College, which is part of the ARC/ Los Rios connection. I HATED using their websites.
I love hearing that you used books in your wedding. That would have been an awesome affair, in my opinion. I’ve always wanted to open a restaurant that was literary themed — unfortunately my cooking skills are very limited. Not to say I can’t “Emril” it up every once in a while, but I also can’t create with a cooking mind. Maybe I’ll just type up the recipes of the truly food literate.
I think the economic issues with literature is an interesting one. With the invention of the Kindle, Nook, iPad and other tablets, the hardcopy book is becoming so outdated. Personally, I would never buy a tablet for reading because have a book in my hand that I can add to my collection means more to me than having an infinite number of works at my fingertips. Once all of the used bookstores goes out of business, I think I’ll “ride off into the sunset”.
Economically speaking, reading does become an expensive habit, especially for those in the lower socio-economic regions. But like you said, even kids who hate reading read every day, most without realizing it. But I think it is imperative for children to read, even if that means bucking the trend and buying a tablet just to satisfy their mind and penchant for futuristic devices instead of a leaflet.
Anyway, great post. Have a wonderful semester and I hope you’re enjoying Chico!