Books

I was tagged by my friend Zen in September. Here's my attempt at filling this out:

Book that changed your life - As a young impressionable 16 year old, I read a whole lot. The one book that really made me think, however, was in fact a play, The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. I know Shakespearean plays make a lot of people cringe, but they truly delight me.

Book(s) you've read more than once - Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. The more I read it, the more I find it new. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I wish I could read Spanish so I could get a taste of the original.

Book you'd take to a deserted island - How to Survive on a Deserted Island ;) Seriously, though, I think I'd be lost without my books.

Book(s) that made you laugh - White Teeth by Zadie Smith, The Inscrutable American by Anurag Mathur and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Book that made you cry - Thomas Hardy novels: The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D'Urbervilles,and Jude the Obscure. Also, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, and The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini

Book(s) you wish you had written - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Book you wish had never been written - A true English teacher response (sorry): None; all books add something to our existence.

Book you're currently reading - No one Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Book you've been meaning to read - Too many, but specifically: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Book you've been meaning to finish - The Life of Pi by Yann Martel; I just can't do it!

"Speare" 4eva

Like a lot of other people, I think Shakespeare will always be relevant. The Bard discusses basic human desires, needs, and experiences. No matter how technologically savvy we get as a species, we are still basically the same inside.

I came across this article and would like to archive it for my reference.

I'll also cut and paste it, just in case the link no longer works in the future!

Video game aims to hook children on Shakespeare
By Martin Roberts
Mon Apr 30, 8:41 AM ET

TORONTO (Reuters Life!) - Children typically spend hours in front of a computer so a Canadian university has decided to introduce them to Shakespeare with a video game.

While zapping enemy spaceships players have to help recover the stolen text of Romeo and Juliet by memorizing lines from the famous play, learning facts about Shakespeare's life and devising synonyms and homonyms for parts of the text.

"The game is a way to capitalize on the time that kids spend on computers," said Professor Daniel Fischlin who headed the team at the University of Guelph in Ontario that developed the game called "Speare."

"I don't know of another medium that has seven-year-olds spouting Shakespeare," Fischlin added in response to charges the game might trivialize learning.

The game was launched earlier this week to coincide with the anniversary of Shakespeare's death after two years and C$50,000 ($44,800) spent developing it.

Fischlin, who tested it on more than 100 grade 6 students, plans to publish his findings in an academic journal. The game is currently available online from a company set up by the university.

"Speare" contains a link to a database about Shakespeare called Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare that was developed by the university as an educational resource.

The site has lesson plans for teachers, video interviews and e-books of the Bard's plays. It provided the inspiration for the game when professors realized the site's multimedia features were accessed mainly by young people.

Fischlin, who is applying for a patent, said he knows of no other video game linked to a similar online resource.

Ieva Mikelsons, a 12-year-old student at the King George Public School in Guelph, tested the game while it was being developed. She said it taught her more about Shakespeare than books used by her older sister.

"Some of my grade 8 friends have just been learning from a book, and they say this is a more hands-on approach, and they learn more because it's fun," she said.


Image from: www.zencast.com