We are beginning our first novel this week and it's one of my absolute favorites, although it certainly isn't without its controversies. Mark Twain wrote one of our first regional texts, and within this text, we certainly get a lot of dialect. This fits with the whole realism movement in literature. Twain writes the way folks might have spoken, and this means his spelling is difficult and can be hard to read. For this reason, I highly recommend using Audible's version, my personal favorite is the reading by Elijah Wood. Yep, you read that right. Frodo reads us Huckleberry Finn, and he does so brilliantly. If you do not use Audible, consider trying it out for a month, just to get this text. You may find that an Audible subscription is as valuable as a cable subscription. I take mine over the latter. Now, I still use my book. I follow along, highlighting and annotating really important passages, symbols, and quotes that I know I want to use in my paper. I also use little sticky post-it tabs that you can easily pick up at Target or Walmart to mark the pages. Sometimes, I use a color-coded system. Green might reference nature; blue might reference class systems; pink could mark gender portrayals, etc. Find a system that works for you. We will be doing literary circles with this text, so remember to go back to that tab at the top of the blog and remind yourself what you're supposed to do for your team. These positions will rotate each week. I'd like us to finish this text over the next 3-4 weeks, so that means we have about ten chapters a week to get through. You can do this, and Audible can help! I believe the entire book is only about 10 hours long. This means if you spend 2 1/2- 3 hours a week, you'll be right on track. That's equivalent to a movie or two, or half of a bodybuilder's daily workout. Or how long my daughter spends on Snapchat each day. ;) Wait, I'm pretty sure you will spend WAY less time on this novel than that.
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