Today's topic is one of the most popular events of every BBAW - Interview Swap. This year, I was paired with Carina of Reading Through Life and below is her answers to my questions:
1) I understand that you are a Canadian teacher teaching in Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi
It's kind of a
long story, actually! I've always wanted to teach overseas (and specifically
ESL), but was trying to get myself established in my home school district
first. I had been moving to different schools over the first few years back in Toronto Dubai Abu Dhabi
As for challenges ... well, largely the challenges are due to the low English
ability of the girls I teach, and the nature of the reform itself. I teach in
high school, and while some of the reform (ie the assessments) have been rolled
out to them, other vital parts of the reform (ie the focus on biliteracy and
simply the time to have learned the English necessary to succeed on the
assessments they're expected to do) has not. Add to that the fact that - at
least at my school - we have rather large classes where the abilities are
completely mixed, and it can sometimes be quite challenging. But it's a great
experience as well, and I wouldn't take it back for anything.
2) How do you find the time to read and write
despite the tight schedule of being a teacher? What are your hobbies aside from
reading and writing?
To be honest,
I don't always manage to balance my schedule very well. I was doing okay mostly
until I moved to the UAE, and then my time spent reading - and blogging - took
a huge hit. I'm starting to re-find that balance now, though ... basically I
just try to spend any free evening time I have reading instead of watching too
much television or doing other things. The blogging is still lacking a bit
behind, but I'm really hoping to re-engage and find more time now that I'm
settled in more in the UAE and don't have to worry so much about all the new
things going on around me. Aside from reading and writing - I like to travel,
and cook, and my partner and I like to geocache and explore new places.
3) You mentioned on your blog that your
reading tastes range from the mile to the extremely eclectic. What kind of
books would you classify as 'eclectic'?
I'm not sure
how accurate that might be at this point, as I seem to have fallen into a kind
of a pattern with my reading that didn't exist to the same extent when I
started blogging (and back when I wrote that section of the blog). I tend
normally to read a lot of memoirs, YA, non-fiction about Islam and other
topics. I also read a little bit here and there about other topics and in other
genres, though, like about running, food ethics, ADHD and depression, abuse,
eating disorders, education, politics, sexuality ... it can sometimes get a bit
all over the place, hence the "eclectic". But that seems to be hit
and miss these days - I sometimes feel like I'm losing a bit of my reading
eccentricity and falling into neat little categories more often than not.
4) What is your favourite genre? Why?
I adore
reading narrative non-fiction and memoirs of people who aren't necessarily
famous. I think it's that these books teach me more about the world and expand
my horizons a bit more than they might be normally. It's also a bit more
clear-cut going into the book whether I'm going to like it or not; if I find
the topic of a non-fiction book or a memoir interesting, I'm more willing to
put up with mediocre writing than I might be when reading a novel. Other than
that, I'm not really sure why I like non-fiction so much. I just seem to keep gravitating
towards it, even when I'm actively trying not to!
5) Which title(s) is the best you have read
this year and tell us more about that book.
That's tough!
I seem to have re-found my groove, as I've read lots of great books this year.
A few that stand out are Stiff, American Gods, Snakewoman of Little Egypt (which I'm reviewing today!), and The Night Circus (which I'll be reviewing later this
month).
Stiff is a non-fiction
popular science book by Mary Roach, and it's basically a look into what happens
to our bodies after we die, how we use (and have previously used) corpses in
all kinds of medical research and other uses, and generally how scientists work
with cadavers. I fell in love with her writing in this book, as it's a nice
balance of "science for everyday people" (but not too dumbed-down)
and wry humour. I've since gone on to read one of her other books - Bonk, to be reviewed later this
month - about the science of sex, and it's also great.
American Gods is somehow
the first Neil Gaiman book that I've read, and it made me extremely sad that
I'd waited this long to do so. It's basically about what happens when the
"old gods" of the world (like those of ancient Egypt, and also
including things like leprechauns) brought over to America face off with the
"new gods" of media, the internet, and so on ... all superimposed on
the background of a good old road trip. It's seriously fantastic, and nothing I
say here can do it justice.
Snakewoman of Little Egypt by
Robert Hellenga is about, among other things, what happens when the main
character tries to start her life fresh after her release from prison, where
she had been incarcerated for shooting her husband (a preacher and community
leader in a snakehandling church) after
he forced her to put her arm into a box of rattlesnakes. And yes, that's the
simplest way I can explain the premise of the book. And it's brilliant,
particularly in audiobook format.
The Night Circus ... I'll
leave you to find out about that one for yourself. Trying to figure out what's
going on is half the fun.
6) Finally, would you read a book which has
received lots of hype, despite the bad writing? To you, which is more
important: the writing or the plot? (Though
it's ideal to have the best of both worlds, what would you choose if you are
given only an option to choose?)
That's a
rather timely question, given that I just read the Fifty Shades trilogy a couple of weeks ago, and
will be reviewing the books in a few weeks. I generally don't like reading
books that have tons of hype, particularly if they hype comes along with lots of lots of criticism of the writing.
For example, I held off for quite a while from reading the Twilight series as well. In the end, I decided
to read it just so that I could legitimately critique it when the subject comes
up, which is pretty much the reason that I read Meyer as well. Though, to be
fair, it was more important for me to read the Twilight books since so many of my students
were talking about them, and it wasn't fair for me to argue with them about the
themes or content when I hadn't actually picked them up and read them myself
... something that I definitely won't be doing in a teacher/librarian role with
the James books. In the end, I'm almost always just as unimpressed with these
hyped-up books as I expect to be, particularly if they're known for having bad
writing.
Having said that, what is usually most important for me in a book is the plot
rather than the writing. Not that I want the writing to suck, or that I will
tolerate it much if it does ... but I find that good writing with a crappy
story is harder to get through, for me, than a good story with mediocre
writing. I managed to get through a few thousand pages of both Twilight and Fifty
Shades, for example, even though the writing in both is decidedly not good.
(I'm not saying the plot is inspired, either, but it's at least compelling
enough to allow me to finish reading.) I can't say that I'd have gotten through
that many pages of a book with lovely writing but no plot.
Thank you, Carina, for being my interview swap partner this year and I enjoyed reading your answers! I'm glad to know you through this interview swap and I look forward to reading more of your posts!
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