I haven't read the book but my mom read the book and she really liked it. She said similar things to what you did - it was inspiring to see what the author overcame. And my mom had dealt with some difficult things in her childhood, but reading the book also reminded her that she had a lot of things to be thankful for.

So just a brief introduction - I am a young adult in my twenties (an actuary as my username suggests :)) , no kids, and I found these forums when I was looking for resources on self-education because I'd like to fill in some of the gaps in my own education. So, I majored in math and economics in college. The last time I took an English class was in high school. I haven't read literature (anything fictional) since high school. I never really understood literary analysis in high school - I could do well enough in English class to get an A, but I hated it. And then I didn't have any general requirements in college so I avoided taking English, history, etc. in college. But, from reading on these boards, it seems a lot of y'all are really enthusiastic about these non-mathematical subjects. So where do I start? How do I gain an appreciation for literature? If I try to just pick up a classic work, I feel overwhelmed by all the fancy language (I like my equations much better;)). Is there some sort of good basic literary analysis book? Like something written at a high school level or a learning adult level but not an undergraduate level? Or should I be able to understand an undergraduate English textbook? I took AP English Lit my senior year of high school and I got a 4 on the exam but I don't remember anything from it which makes me think I should start with high school level English literature reading. I guess I'd like to get to the point where I can read some more of the classics and kind of enjoy it. When I was little, I used to be a voracious reader - I would read huge stacks of novels every month. But somewhere along the line I lost my love of reading. I get bored reading now - I'd rather watch tv to relax instead of reading. Is that terrible? I want to become more well-rounded, but I have no idea what I'm doing. Thanks so much! :001_smile:

I love kids - I babysat all through high school, taught Sunday School at church, volunteered in the church nursery. And now, I think most kids are pretty much adorable or fun or interesting. But........I don't have any kids of my own yet so I'm not sure how I'll feel when I have my own kids? But this is just an opinion from a completely parenting inexperienced childless person :)

See that's what I'm so impressed by - people read Shakespeare and love it? :lol: I know I should improve my general literacy, but my math major brain is completely baffled by literature. The idea of picking up a classic work of literature and reading it strikes fear in my heart. ;)

I felt a need to delurk just to introduce myself and say that I'm not one of those sinister lurkers, just really shy. Plus I don't have kids so I feel like usually I have nothing to add. I first found the forums because I was interested in learning more about self-education. I want to fill in the gaps of my own education and would like to become more well rounded as well. As my screen name suggests I am an actuary and I also haven't done much reading since high school, so I am inspired by the high school boards in trying to maybe make myself a little more of a reader of literature. Then after coming to the boards to learn more about self-education, I was intrigued by homeschooling. And so I like to hang out here sometimes and read about homeschooling too because I'm curious and it seems like this cool idea. But, again, I don't have children yet (although I want kids) and so I feel like a total nerd reading about homeschooling methods and curriculum when I have no idea whether I'll even homeschool or when I'll have kids. But what can I say, I like to learn about random stuff and I've always been interested in education theory and pedagogy. So hi there :)