Prologue

Currently Reading: The Sirens of Titan  by Kurt Vonnegut

Greetings blogosphere! Welcome to Novel Ideas, a nerdy English major’s catharsis in which she can discuss, critique, mock, rant about, gush over, and just generally talk about books.

When I graduated from The College of William & Mary about a year ago, I promptly threw a congratulatory celebration for myself about never having to write an academic paper or analyze a book ever again! I patted myself on the back and, honestly, had a beer or two for surviving the Paper Regime, an era of oppression that included the year of six English courses and the infamous (among my friends and family) “Duck Paper,” a 22-paged paper all about ducks. Yeah. Ducks. I’m a fountain of somewhat useless duck facts now. The latter was the last college paper I ever had to write and I rejoiced! Finally! It was all over! Never again would I have to wrack my brain for an original and genius paper topic! Never again would I have to stress about the perfect thesis wording! Never again would my poor books be overwhelmed with post-it notes marking the perfect supporting quotes! Never again would a paper force me to pull an all-nighter – a practice I had become as accustomed to as someone who regularly travels between the United States and China! Freedom felt good.

I further praised myself for outwitting many of my paper-oppressed peers. Unlike those poor souls, I had made the brilliant and practical decision to enter the (slightly more) lucrative, paper-free “real world” after college instead of grad school. Much like Peter Pan, I was smug over “the cleverness of me.” You think you’re so smart going to grad school? I thought, Then how come I’m staying up until 4 AM because I’m having fun at a bar and you’re up until 4 AM writing a paper? MWAHAHAHAHA! Take THAT future Masters and Doctors!

But then a strange thing began happening… 

I initially enjoyed the first months of paper freedom, during which the most writing I did was on gchat or Facebook, with a few cover letters (the bane of my existence) thrown in there. Then, I started feeling the itch to read again, a normal enough feeling for me. So I thought I could get a quick fix with reading a book for pleasure. Only, oddly, I couldn’t just enjoy a book anymore. Instead, I found myself unconsciously analyzing what I was reading… and then craving to discuss it! I missed the more challenging novels in my English classes. I missed the discussions with my English classmates. I missed questioning aspects of a novel and then proposing possible answers. 

Slowly, the horrifying truth became so clear I couldn’t ignore it:

I missed writing academic papers.

Oh cruel irony.

The first step is admitting I have a problem. Hello, my name is Meredith and I’m an eternal English nerd. The second step? Getting a blog of course!

So here I am. Ready to dive back into books and into book analysis and discussion!

Admittedly, I’m pretty new to the world of blogging. I’ve only had one narcissistic (and thankfully brief) encounter with a Livejournal when I was fifteen and from that time – and the unfortunate time of Xanga – I have associated blogging with whiny, spiteful teenagers who don’t understand that their problems are not actually that interesting, unique or problematic. Or with people who have found far too specific a niche like reviewing the different types of Doritos. Can you say, “I have too much time on my hands”? However, after seeing some beautifully done blogs (including my friend Miriam’s – whose life is FAR more interesting than mine will ever be), I’m taking the plunge! 

Hopefully I’ll have something novel to say :)