<p>When reading, I enjoy searching every nuance of the text, dissecting the lines, and wrangling every ounce of truth from the author. Reading logs just end up being frivolous and disturb the digestion of a text. Likewise, I hate doing anything "artsy" for a class, e.g., a book cover, even though I have some artistic talent. Anyone else?</p>
<p>i hate annotations. when reading, i like to get into the book. not simply search for good things to analyze.</p>
<p>In my own experiences, I have found, for the most part that kids who savor high school level creative writing assignments but despise thesis or synthesis writing probably have limited writing ability, though they enjoy exuding a superficial aura of "artsiness" or "poetic talent." It's downright irritating, but there's no use in voicing my opinion to such a mass of angst-ridden teens (I'm well aware that "angst-ridden" and "teens" is redundant).</p>
<p>Excellent points Alec Eiffel, but I hope you weren't suggesting that I am one of the angst-ridden teens you refer to. It's just that I've already read "Moby Dick" (my current favorite) and "Heart of Darkness" and have to do a reading log to "reflect," in other words, tying the text to my own experiences. Isn't this a given in most literary exploration? Don't we all bring our own personality and beliefs and reflect them upon the body of the work?</p>
<p>I agree with rocket-resellers. Those types of assignments are annoying, and ruin the flow of any book. I'm not sure what you're refering to by "reading log," but I'm assuming you're forces to write something along the lines of plot, tone, and worst of all "connecting to your personal experiences." I do like creative writing assignments, but the same goes for any type of writing. The "artsy" assignments are hand-down the worst! There's no point (at least that I can see) to having to draw a scene in the book, making a "new book cover" for one, making posters to advertise them, etc.</p>