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Ugh. NYC summers. Usually great, but man it has been WAY too hot. And of course, now that it’s finally cool enough (how sad is it when 90 is cool?) to go to the beach without being burnt to a crisp, it’s overcast and supposed to rain tomorrow!? Bummer.

On a happier note, I got an email from one of my Professors for next term earlier this week. Professor Quinby was writing to let us know what the first book we were going to use for her class was, so we could order it, and perhaps start reading it! Perhaps it is a sign of my extreme nerdiness that I found this news exciting, and I suppose it’s a bit strange given how just last week I was complaining that summer vacation was already halfway over. But I’m just REALLY looking forward to this class. A Macaulay central course called “Imagining the End of the World,” it’s an English class about post-apocalyptic literature – and I LOVE post-apocalyptic books, movies, TV shows etc. I’ve probably said this before, but one of my favorite books is The Stand by Stephen King. I’m not usually into zombies, but that may be changing – I’m super excited for The Walking Dead season 2, starting in October! And Professor Quinby is an amazing Professor. I took “Sexuality and American Culture” with her my freshman year. Her class was extremely challenging, but she was incredibly supportive, and I enjoyed attending every class because I knew that I was going to gain something valuable from it. I left the course with a sense of pride and accomplishment, and not only increased content knowledge, but strongly developed skills in writing and analyzing text. That’s what every college class should be like – and many of mine have been – but few at the same level as Sexuality and American Culture. Imaging the End of the World should be fun 🙂

But until I get closer to the start of the Fall term, I’m continuing with my summer reading. Right now I’m smack dab in the middle of rereading the Harry Potter series. I forget what a wonderful storyteller Rowling is, and how much I love these books. And reading them now is interesting, since I’m at a different point in my life when I read the series when I was even just a few years younger. And the series is so rich with detail that I’ve caught tons of things I missed the first 50 times around 😉

I’m actually looking forward to getting to the 6th and 7th books – I’ve only read the 6th twice and the 7th once! (I know – blasphemous!) But enough of my Harry Potter rant.

Stay cool –

Kaitlyn
kt.ohagan@gmail.com

PS – Harry Potter and post-apocalyptic fiction aren’t completely unrelated – check out this thesis paper by a Macaulay Honors College student, “Reading Harry Potter as Post-apocalyptic Fiction!“