On the shores of Gitchee Gumee -- please introduce yourself...

[bdNM]

Well, better late than never...

I should have started here, but we can introduce ourselves now, as we are getting to the point about Hiawatha's Friends...

My background is in the Classics (Latin and Greek), though I also have some training in Old English.  I have a fondness for the great works of the ancients and some medieval writers.  In general, my fondness for American literature is largely focused on 20th century authors.  When I was in grammar school, I read some of "Song of Hiawatha," and assumed that it was what good poetry was.  As I encountered other poets over the year, Longfellow's stock with me took a tumble.  Still, this poem is a famous American poem, and it seemed a good idea to spend some time with it, rather than simply look at it derisively from afar.  At this point, I'm finding that I like it somewhat, and that the repetition has a certain amount of charm.  I hope to read a few scholarly things about the poem and will be sharing my findings when I do.

Let's hear from you guys?  Who are you?  What interest do you have in the most popular American poem of the 1850s? 

[Lmfwhite]

I have always loved to read, but I found that I had to put reading on the backburner while I raised my children.  About 7 years ago, I started a neighborhood book club due to my renewed interest in reading.  We are now 12 strong but I am in a minority when it comes to wanting to read the classics and literature that we were introduced to at school.  So I started slowly with some classics.  Beowulf caught my attention as did Shakespeare so B&N has been filling in the gap.  I may not have much to offer on the scholarly details or intellectual insights, but I am learning alot and am thankful for these message listings!

[bdNM]

What books are you reading with your book club?  At the book club I moderate at the library, we are generally reading books of interest to an African-American audience, who make up about 80% of our public. 

Our current reading is Walter Mosley's Little Scarlet, which I find fascinating in that it gives an insight into the Watts riots of 1965, which happened in my lifetime, but I was too young and too far from LA for them to make any impression.