Work

My English 12 classes began Bram Stoker's Dracula today.  As usual with more advanced texts, I read most of the first chapter aloud to help them get into the flow and style of language.  As is often the case when I read yet another Victorian novel, I was annoyed by the inane details.  But Stoker has a way of drawing you in (like his monster, perhaps...sorry), and as Jonathan Harker is about to climb in Dracula's coach, the kids didn't want me to stop reading.  Neither did I.  Great books have great stories.  Great books draw you in.  You want to stop everything else going on around you and immerse yourself.  Great books, however, also challenge us as readers.  Texting is so much easier.  Facebook is a constant distraction.  It can be work to read great books.  All I can hope for as I coax my students through these texts, is that they find the pay-off to be worth all the hard work.
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