Once I took a German class all about books...

Man, I've left this blog alone for a while. But I supposed it's time for a new beginning.

You know, Austria has done one good thing for me that I never expected it to, and that's to get me to read. Since I was a little kid, I hated to read. And that was always a source of shame for me. I felt like I was too intelligent to dislike reading. I was always one of the top students in my class, and staying up there usually entails a decent amount of hitting the books. But try as I might, I couldn't seem to get myself to enjoy it. In fourth grade we had to take reading tests. The school had a list of about 300 books, and after reading one you took a quiz on its content. Each semester, you had to pass at least 4 tests. One semester I was behind, so I quickly read a second-grade-level book called "Leo the Late Bloomer" and took the test on that. I don't know why, but my teacher decided to announce it to the class. My embarrassment from that episode lives on.

Outside of the embarrassment, my dislike of reading has had two major negative effects, the first of which is my incredibly small vocabulary. The toll that took on my SAT verbal section score was clear, unfortunately. And it's almost funny here in Austria that when choosing a text to use in a class, I not only have to consider the words that the students don't know, I have to consider the words I don't know. It's scary that it's not that unlikely that I'll be put on the spot sometime about a word, and the best and only answer I'll be able to give will be "Look it up." But, to be honest, I'm not sure I can totally blame my small vocabulary on my little problem with reading. I say this because my vocabulary in German is also much smaller than it should compared to my grammar abilities, and I've never shied away from the reading I had to do in school for that. German was always the easiest subject, why would I want to? The words just don't seem to stick properly. It might just be that my brain doesn't work that way. Who knows. Probably the most detrimental effect that my dislike of reading had, however, was on my reading speed. I'm really appallingly slow. Finishing 25 pages an hour is actually very good for me (Try getting through a history major at Northwestern like that. Maybe that's why I constantly wanted to rip all my hair out of my scalp). And it doesn't matter how enthralling I find a book. I mean, there were books in my childhood I eventually found that I loved, like Ann Rinaldi's stuff - I ate that up (slowly). But even that took me days to get through. And unfortunately, the longer you have to dedicate yourself to something, the more likely your interest is to wane. That means this whole reading speed thing is a self-feeding problem.

Straight out of college, and none of this seemed to change. I almost got through one book last summer, and it was a book I really thought I was interested. At least since it's a history book, I already know how it ends. Then I got to Austria. Out of habit more out of intent, I had brought a couple books with me. My favorite book,Kidnapped, and The Devil in the White City, something I grabbed in the airport on my way over after my mom stuffed a wad of soon-to-be-useless-to-me American cash into my hands. I was sure it would take me a couple months to get through those two, if I got through them at all. But oddly enough, something on that plane just flipped a switch, and I finished them within a few weeks, gladly. And then I wanted more. Since then, I've not been caught without book. And I really have no idea what did it. Is it that my little farm willage gets lonely? No, I still can't really read in my own room. No matter what, that comfy bed not too far away looks more inviting than a book. And my laptop is much too fun. Is it the fact that I waste a lot of my life away commuting on trains? It's true that I read on the train most of the time now, but I'd be just as happy just listening the the mp3 player I also always have on me. Maybe it's the cafe culture here. Coffee is better with a book perhaps? Or maybe it just gives you a better excuse to drink it alone. Or maybe it's just that my academic brain misses the stimulus, though even with the amount of reading I find myslef wanting to do I'm certainly not on the same level I was at NU. I really can't say for sure. Whatever the cause, I'm glad for the change. Now for the good part. These are the books I've read so far in Austria:

Kidnapped
The Devil in the White City
Dracula
Selbs Mord
Glennkill
Tannöd
The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
(Hm, am I missing one? Or did I really read three German books in a row?)

Now I'm looking for suggestions. Anything, really, but better if it's in German since those are a little easier to come by in this country. I usually trust other people's taste more than I trust my own, so just about anything you offer I'm sure to follow up on. Help me out here, people. This is a good thing, and so unlike me.