My Reading List for 01/19/10

Hey! I have class tonight at EIU and have finally finished reading James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. I say "finally," because it is one loooong book-- about 415 pages. Still, it's also a very interesting one, as there's something in it for everybody: drama, action, adventure, romance, history, social commentary-- it's all there, folks. As for the author himself, he was very interesting as well; for example, Cooper (1789-1851), a New Jersey native, began writing almost by accident. I would characterize him as highly literate, as evidenced by his inclusion of quotes from Homer (author of the Greek epics The Iliad and The Odyssey) and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream (my fave Shakespeare play, BTW) at the beginning of the book's 33 chapters. There are many other literary allusions in the book as well. Next, I'll be reading Cooper's The Pioneers. Like I said last week, I'm very excited about this semester.