Dancing Minds Challenge blog
December 12th, 2011
During the Dancing Mind I chose to read Tayari Jones’ “Silver Sparrow” which was nothing more than phenomenal, and I also studied for my GRE exam but what I found myself doing most was just sitting down and letting my mind breathe. Just staring outside the window, my thoughts at rest, observing the beautiful day and just letting that image settle in my mind. I must admit its been a long time since my brain has had a moment to just “chill out. Being a Bucknell student definitely makes it difficult for me to have time where my mind isn’t [...]
Continue reading Dancing Mind…or Peace of Mind? »
November 22nd, 2011
During my years as a graduate student in English, I am sure I spent many six-hour chunks of time snuggled on the couch in my apartment, with pen, highlighter and Post-It flags in hand and cat on lap, gobbling up the books I was assigned for class. In fact, I know that during my semester studying for my comprehensive exams, this happened quite a bit. In the last few years, however, reading for pleasure—for any amount of time—has been put at a premium. There always seems to be something else to do: laundry, cleaning, grading, course preparation, grocery shopping, calls [...]
Continue reading Mind Dances, Body Resists »
November 22nd, 2011
This year I couldn’t decide what I wanted to read. Would it be Jennifer Egan’s recent Pulitzer Prize winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, or one of Shirley Jackson’s early novels, or did I want to reread (for the third time) Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, one of the most beautiful novels written in the past hundred years, or Roger Ebert’s recent memoir, Life Itself, or what? Finally, the books that called to me, that I seen many film versions of but had never actually read, were A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. [...]
Continue reading Continuing the Waltz »
November 21st, 2011
About two weeks ago, I looked at a message center email from the Griot Center, inviting me to participate in a reading group for Silver Sparrow and I paused, wondering if I could do it, if I could fit it in this time. My recent attempts to have the complete experience of reading the book, talking about it and then seeing the campus speaker, succeeded twice except for finding time to read the book. How could I accept another book knowing I wouldn’t find the time to read it? I hit archive. Silver Sparrow arrives in the mail and I [...]
Continue reading Finding time, making time, choosing how I use my time »
November 21st, 2011
First off, full disclosure: I did this on Sunday rather than Saturday because I was at the Met Opera’s HD simulcast of Phillip Glass’ Satyagraha for the better part of Saturday. I will compare these two immersive experiences in a minute, but first I will say that I thought this year’s DM challenge would be much harder than last year’s because, after resisting cell phone ownership for many years, I now have an iPhone. I have gotten quite used to responding to the buzz (pun intended) of texts, emails, etc., coming through that little black box. However, once I turned [...]
Continue reading Dancing Mind: the sequel »
November 21st, 2011
I was thrilled I was able to read the Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, one of my favorite authors. I read a lot but it’s often for only an hour or two and then off to do something else. It’s been awhile since I’ve read for six hours straight. It was a challenge for me because I some times can get distracted and at those time usually I go and do something else on the computer or listen to my ipod. But I had a lot of fun on Saturday and if I ever get another opportunity like this [...]
Continue reading Six Hours of Fun »
November 20th, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed reading for six hours on Saturday. I finished Stephen King’s Blaze and began Stephen King’s Desperation. I love to read and I usually read a little each day, but reading for a longer period of time without distractions from any technology I found that I kept my train of thought better. This is a great event and I will definitely participate again next year!
Continue reading My First Dancing Mind Challenge »
November 20th, 2011
Six hours of reading in one day… Questions came pouring into my head. How am I supposed to do this? I could barely even sit through my five hour driving class. What would I read? Where would I read? I woke up at 9 a.m. and decided to begin this challenge in my room. First on my list was a specific interest of mine: economics. I picked up “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” by Michael Lewis. Lewis describes the build-up of the late-2000s financial crisis and follows individuals that have both gained and lost money from this recession. [...]
Continue reading Disconnected »
November 19th, 2011
So my first Dancing Mind Challenge was very fun. I started a bit late though. I woke up at 7 am and thought “Oh i can sleep some more”, i then awoke at 9:50 and hurried over to Walls Lounge. I found no problem disconnecting, possibly because whenever I find a good book to read, i do nothing but read, at home my mother would force me to do things besides read, even if its to watch TV or play video games its fine because I’m not reading. I felt very over prepared for the challenge, I was afraid of finishing my [...]
Continue reading My Mind Danced »
November 19th, 2011
After all of the preparations for the Challenge in the Griot office, I knew the time, the location, the food and the overall game plan for the event. What I didn’t know was how it was going to actually be – was the time going to fly by? Was it going to feel like six years instead of six hours? Was the food going to be really good (as a college student, this question is all too important)? Where was I going to find the time to fit this into my schedule, and was I actually going to be able to [...]
Continue reading My first DM Challenge »
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