My literary profile

            My family considered literature a large and important part of child rearing. I remember that we would always gather together in the evenings in order to read stories from the Bible together. After our scriptural readings, my sister and I would each split off with one of our parents (on a weekly rotation), and do individual literature readings, most usually with a parent reading to us.

            Weeks when my father would read to me, I vividly recall relaxing on the big brown down comforter of my parents’ bed to listen. We mainly read through volume upon volume of the Hardy Boys (My sister was being read Nancy Drew). Sometimes, as a break, we would read some of the comics of Calvin and Hobbes while taking turns speaking the dialogue for different characters. Once I got a little older, my father began to introduce more advanced literature, such as Great Expectations.

            My reading today generally stems around books of thinking. When Skeptics Ask, for example, is a book that says the Christianity is not merely faith with reason, but looks at why Christian faith is the more rational, logical, scientific, and moral way of thinking. As this picture shows, my library has quite bit of weight in books of scholar, but my more “literary” section does include some of my favorite books such as The Inferno and The Sum of All Fears.

            After reading Literature Is a Thing You Do as Part of Life, I am indeed excited about the course. After learning more from Corrigan’s English composition class than I feel like I have from any other class, I am very excited about improving my ability to engage with literature. Corrigan says that just as our life’s experiences influence how we perceive what we read, so does our reading influence our lives. Assuming this statement is true, as I do, how exciting that he also believes, as do I, that you’ll get as much out of reading as you put into it. Just think: Reading affects your life in relation to how you’re reading, and you can learn to read (or engage other form of literature) better and with more depth! This means you can absolutely change your life in huge ways by engaging literature properly!

            One of the most important things I see in this essay is a distinction made at the beginning of the text. “[L]iterature is a thing to be actively engaged, and it does—or at least can—matter for the lives of all sorts of people.” Can. The only thing that will stop anyone from changing their lives and edifying themselves is themselves. I will not stand in my way.


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Photos of me? Hmm. I don't take very many normal photos. I suppose this is the most recognizable image I have of myself currently.

Working at Anchor Blue before they close (I was 18 here).