Introduction

 Hello! My name is Brooke; I'm a soph0more Human Communication major.  I live in Newville, and commute to school Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester.  I work part time in a nursing home as the evening and weekend receptionist, and I absolutely love my job.  On the weekends that I don't work, I travel to see my boyfriend of 4 years who lives in western PA.  If I have any spare time between school. work, and traveling, I go shopping!  :)
            I must admit that I didn't look into this class before signing up; I just knew that I needed it to complete my gen-eds.  But, after reading the syllabus, I'm anxious to read The Hunger Games.  Isn't it supposed to be the 'new' Twilight series?  The last book I read was The Help.  I liked it alot, and really enjoyed how the author used three of the characters to tell the story. 
            If I had to choose a type of pop culture that I'm interested in, I guess I would say movies and music.  Music is a part of everyday life for me (isn't it for everyone?)- I listen to it on the way to and from school.  I listen mostly to country, but I don't mind most genres, as long as it's not 'scream-y' rock stuff.  I also like movies, but seldom go to the theatre to see them (with the exception of the Twilight series - I will be first in line to see the new one in November!).  In the summer I like to go to the Cumberland Drive-In for movies. Does everyone living at Ship know about the drive-in? It's too fun to miss!
            In my opinion, literature is any source of meaningful information or ideas.  Novels are what come to mind first, but essays, documentaries, poetry, etc. are included.  In high school, I think everybody is assigned to read literature.  Whether or not everyone actually reads the books is a whole different story.  It's harder when half the class reads and half doesn't - half is held back from really learning from the book due to the half that doesn't care but usually gets most of the attention from the teacher saying, "You need to do your homework!"  My senior year, however, was a totally different story.  Instead of simply assigning meaningful literature, he would pass out a novel, let the class read the first page or so, and then ask if we really wanted to read it.  The class would say no, of course, and the teacher would literally toss the book behind him and send us for free time.  So, my experience reading literature in school has not really been a positive one.