And so it has begun…again.

Yesterday saw the beginning of the second year on the cheese' road to two master's degrees. Here is, for your consideration, the cheese' reading list for the semester…which seems a bit light, thankfully.

Eng. 520 – Early 19th Century American Lit. (Overall, the cheese is not overjoyed about this class, but it worked for his schedule and the professor is fairly rockin')

Nature and Selected Essays – Emerson (the cheese is fairly indifferent toward Ralph Waldo Emerson

House of the Seven Gables – Hawthorne (the cheese believes this book is briefly mentioned in Ed Norton's first movie…but has no further information)

Moby Dick – Melville (quite dreading this one, actually…the cheese attempted to read it once and nearly bored himself, literally, to death

Sovereignty and the Goodness of God – Rowlandson (the title does not endear itself unto the cheese)

Slave Narratives – Andrews (Yeah! Down with Whitey!)

And the ever present course reader...chock full of 200 years of American Lit!

Eng. 536 – Modern British Lit. (The cheese hasn't had this professor yet, but first impressions are favorable, and it's a subject of great interest unto the cheese)

The Secret Agent – Conrad (already started this one, and surprisingly, it reads very similarly to Pratchett or Gaiman…which, as we all know, is right up the cheese' alley)

Dubliners – Joyce (read Portrait of an Artist…as an undergrad and enjoyed it, so this should be decent)

The Good Soldier – Ford Madox Ford (this guy's name is actually Ford Madox Ford…seriously!)

Heartbreak House – Shaw (meh)

Selected Short Stories/Snake and Other Poems – Lawrence (double meh)

To the Lighthouse – Woolf (WORST NOVEL EVER WRITTEN IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, HANDS DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats – Yeats (stupid poetry!)

Vile Bodies – Waugh (no clue about this one, but the title sure is promising…)

Molloy – Beckett (a novel originally written in French, by an Irishman, then translated to English…make what you will of that)

Four Quartets – Eliot (Finally! A professor that actually wants to teach Eliot's greatest work…and the really great thing about Eliot is that he's taught in both American and British Modern lit…of course in American the text was The Wasteland…which is a much more "American" poem than Four Quartets"

Eng. 503 – Techniques in Writing

No required reading, apparently, which seems a bit odd. Anyway, this course will officially begin "Operation Ingratiate Oneself into the Good Graces of Professor Blaylock" which was about 90% of the reason the cheese wanted to go to his particular graduate school.