Books I Read for School // Or How I Gamed The System To Get Credits For Reading Books I Already Wanted To Read

 

 *evil laughter*

 


The Story

 

To begin, I should explain some backstory. I'm graduating in May (with a 4 year degree I got in 3 because I'm a maniac workaholic and a *bit* of an overachiever. Oop.) 

There was a course that is "highly suggested" for my minor (International Relations and Diplomacy, which is within the political science department). But the professor who teaches it wasn't going to teach a section of it this semester and since it is my last semester, that means I can't take it before I graduate. My advisor said he could waive it and we'd just substitute other political science course in that spot, but we both agreed that I could still reach out to the professor and ask if he could teach it as a tutorial. 


Ok...

So there are tutorials and independent studies. 

A tutorial is when you take an existing class, but by yourself! So you do the readings on your own and meet with the professor one on one to go over course material and lecture. It's super useful if your schedule doesn't have an opening for that class. You can't take two 11am classes at the same now can you? So unless you have a time turner, you options are wait another semester or do it as a tutorial. (And of course, in the complicated world of per-requisites, sometimes you can't afford to wait another semester!)  But you still have to convince the professor to re-teach all of the course material to you. 

An independent study on the other hand...is when you create your own course! You have a greater flexibility in how you do things, when you do things, etc since you're not following a schedule meant for a class. 

So, for example, if you're a history major...

If there's a course on the civil war, but its not offered that semester you might be able to convince a professor to teach it to you as a tutorial. 

If you want to study civil war history in your college town (works better for me than someone going to school in Hawaii since I'm in a little PA town but you get the drift) or specifically the affect women had on the civil war, then you would meet with a professor and set up your own course. You'd lay out some sources (maybe historical locations in the town to visit, specific diaries or letters of women or to women in that era, or a good textbook or you might even be able to just outline what you would look at like "letters, diaries, and other first hand accounts of women during the American civil war.")


And here is what I did: 

First I went to the professor and asked him if he wanted to teach the class as a tutorial. He basically said: "Yes...but no." You see, that course has a tiny model UN portion of it which 

A.) is why they're no offering it this semester, since it would be difficult with my university's COVID policies 

B.) usually works better with more than one person

and C.) Wasn't something that he was willing to leave out of the course, since it was a major part of the experience

BUT! There was a course he was interested in teaching...He'd designed it awhile ago, but never got a chance to offer it. Basically, it consisted of reading a bunch of memoirs and biographies about diplomats and discussing it! 

And I was of course like YES!!! And we were going to do it as a tutorial (since it was a preexisting course. But then...as he was setting it up, he was like "You know what? It would be easier if we just made it an independent study." 


And then he did two really cool things.

First, he said: "Lets grade it." Because independent studies (and I think tutorials?) are often NOT graded and they're Pass/Fail. Which means...there is no grade which means it doesn't affect your GPA. It is graded it if counts toward your major, but beyond that I think its up to the professor/student. So I basically knew that I had an automatic A...

And secondly...he said, "Let me know if there's any books you'd like to look at."

If it had been a tutorial with a fixed syllabus, I would have taken whatever the fixed book list was a been good. But an independent study? Ha ha ha.

I wanted to booklist finalized before winter break, so that I could read some of them in advance (and hey, it makes Christmas shopping for me that much easier.) So a spent a bit of time on the internet and sent him back a list!


...


That list had about 16 books and I was like, "We'll throw out two and have 14 books and then do one a week for the 16 week semester!" (Hey, I gave us two weeks of wiggle room)

 

Madness? Yes

Something that I can't do? No 

 

He basically said...Ha ha. No!? How about 6 books and we do one every other week. 

And then I remembered that in order for us to have a discussion about the books...he also had to read them? (And he's read some of them before so he wouldn't have to re-read, but I figured I'd be nice and not push it.)

So we settled on 6 books, a vague historical period (cold war to modern day), and we finalized three of the six books. We also made vague place holders for the other three (Something about Kissinger, something about Rice, and something about the end of the Cold War.) 

 

I naturally read the first three before the semester started. 

They were: 

The Man Who Ran Washington by 

Our Man

The Dust of Kandahar

(Full list, reading order, reasoning behind that specific book, and mini review to follow at end of post!)


And then the semester was beginning! And my professor sent me an email...

It went somewhere along the lines of "Hey, there's another student who will be taking this course...is it ok with you if we meet at the same time and discuss it all together?"

And I was like...

hmm. As fun as the reading would be, part of the fun is the fact that I get to meet with this professor, who I enjoy spending time with and talking with, one on one. And by doing that, there is greater chance of one of us going completely off topic (which is always amusing.) Or if one of us wants to take a week off or move the meeting time or date, we can! 

But also, I know this professor is a little overworked (We have 3 political science professors for the entire department...) so I was like, "Ok! I can do that!"

(The professor also sent out the remainder of the book list and I ordered them.)

We met once to talk about the course and pick the first book. The Cling On hadn't read a bunch of the books like a maniac so when the professor asked us what book we wanted to start with the answers were kind of like:

Him: This book looks kind of interesting, but IDK

Me: I would suggest we start with The Man Who Ran Washington. It covers a really broad period of history so it will be easy to tie other books back to it and other major figures come up. It's also well written and detailed while still being fairly light and easy to read. 

(Guess which one we went with)

The professor: And where should we divide it? Halfway?

Cling on: *vague hum*

Me: The book is X pages long, but the actual story ends on X. So X would be halfway, but if we go back two more pages from that it will be the end of a chapter.

**Repeat as needed every single time we picked another book**


Which of course means that the books went in the order that made the most sense to me...which was also the order I read them in...






Books I Read and Their Order:


The Man Who Ran Washington 

About: James Baker III

Reason it was picked: He was Secretary of State, did important stuff (including end of Cold War) and had an impact on a lot of events. (Professor picked it.)

Thoughts: It was really good! I think its actually my favorite or in my top three...It was easy to read (for a non-fiction) and I wasn't annoyed by the character. (Kissinger and Holbrooke? Not so much)

Rating:  5/5 stars

Would read again or suggest to others!!!

 

Our Man

About: Richard Holbrooke

Reason it was picked: Holbrooke did a lot of stuff (including diplomatic stuff surrounding the war in the Balkans, which is an area I expressed interest in.)

Thoughts: Holbrooke kind of deserves to be called the abbreviation of his first name...But the author kind of framed the book as in "You know how you heard the Holbrooke is kind of a jerk? Well, he is. Like oof. But also he's a super interesting person? And did a lot of super interesting stuff?"

So basically I went into this knowing he'd be annoying, but that he was also kind of a car crash you can't look away from. (Which is more than I can say about Kissinger. OOF) Probably would have to keep my eyeballs from rolling around my head if I had ever spoken to the man it was about, but the book was good.

Rating: 4.5/5

(Holbrooke himself gets like a 3.5? Actual personality is like a 2 though.) But the book was well written. The missing .5 is for the excepts from Holbrooke's journals and memoirs, because THE EGO, LOL. Would possibly re-read in the future and would probably recommend to people interested in the subject. (If I had to pick a book about him, 10/10 would suggest this one over his memoir.)

 

Kissinger

About: Henry Kissinger

Reason it was picked: Kissinger is a super famous and super important person.

Thoughts: Kissinger was alive for so much of history and through such an important time and he was involved in politics for basically all of that time. So it goes through a bunch of super important moments in history, but you have to already know what they are or stop and do a quick google search to really get what was happening and "make it click" mentally. Also, since it had to cover so much ground it had a lot of kind of dry moments...(Also, not the best person ever)

Rating: 4/5

Good book, but will probably never re-read (in its entirety). Will probably use of a reference if I have to look into certain time periods or pull quotes...Might recommend it? But only if someone was studying Kissinger or something. More of an academic/research kind of book than a read on the plane or weekends book.

 

 

***Note: We haven't actually gotten to this point in the discussions yet, but I've already read the books so...*** 

***And yes, I AM three books ahead. Why kind of newbie do you think I am to read books as they come up? LOL ***


No Higher Honor by Condoleezza Rice

About: Condoleeza Rice's time in government as the National Security Advisor, but mostly her time as Secretary of State.

Reason it was picked: Really gives a good look at government thought process after 9/11 and some good information on some issues with the Middle East/Israel, specifically the establishment of a independent State of Palestine. 

Thoughts: I really enjoyed it! It was a fairly light read and I liked hearing about all the little day to day stuff that a modern diplomat has to do. Obvious the Secretary of State would have an increased travel schedule and deal with slightly bigger problems, but still. And it was really cool to see how she made the position as Secretary of State her own and the little things she did when she traveled.

Rating: 5/5

Would probably recommend! (It's just a controversial time period, so as interesting as it was to see what the government officials were thinking, there are people who I know already have a firm opinion of this era...namely some adults who lived during this period so I would want to take into consideration how willing they are to read it with an open mind...)

 

Destiny and Power by Jon Meacham

About: President Bush

Reason it was picked: Bush was president at the end of the Cold War and around for some important moments in history. What was going on in the White House after the Soviet Union fell? What were the inner politics and motivations and thought processes behind major decisions? Also because these are things that happened in the living memory of a lot of people, so its something that it helps to know about in order to have a good discussion about modern politics.

Thoughts: I think its really cool to hear about the path someone took in their life before they became President (or took any high office or important role in history). It also gave me a better understanding on the period, which helped my mentally pin down different events. 

(Also, I sometimes mix up the Presidents Bush and Bush. WHY WOULD YOU ELECT TWO PEOPLE WITH THE SAME FIRST AND LAST NAME? AAH. AM I REALLY SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHO THEY ARE BASED ON MIDDLE INITIAL? RUDE.)

Rating: 4.5/5

.5 missing because the opening chapters covered his family (which was super useful and helped me understand where he was coming from) but also referred to people by their last name sometimes and HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KEEP TRACK OF WHICH BUSH WE'RE ON NOW?

 

Dust of Kandahar 

About: A diplomat in Afghanistan

Reason it was picked: I wanted to see diplomacy from the day to day view of someone who wasn't a powerful political figure.

Thoughts: Quick to get through because its written in a diary form. Didn't cover HUGE historical events so not as interesting to some.

Rating:  4/5

 

 

 

I'm tempted to write a post listing the other books on the reading list...but I might wait until I go ahead and read them all...So in a couple months there might be a post called "I really could have read all these books in one semester but NOOO! We couldn't do THAT!"


And what did you think? Would you consider reading any of these books? Or are you considering gaming the system at your own school? (Psst. Are you in school?)

MK

 

 

 


Comments

  1. This is an absolutely brilliant life hack. I love it so much. XD
    (Also: you @ the other person who took the tutorial is absolutely me in every small group of anything ever.)
    Ooh, and Dust of Kandahar sounds really interesting! I'll have to look into it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! XD
      Right? You know what they say. Its 20% of the people doing 80% of the work (or something like that)

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  2. I love how fast you read! You also have great range with books.
    I need to read more historical books.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you!
      I think its easier for me to read non fic (new and re-reads) and re-read old favorites than it is for me to start new books in college. Because can I read a few pages of one of these books before class, put a bookmark in and when the professor actually starts class? Yes
      But new fictional books? Bleh. I want that big time block to really get into the story, you know?

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  3. Girl...you'd thrive in a grad program. You really would.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You are a GENIUS. I love how you were like, "I can read a book a week." and your professor was like, "Um, no. What have I gotten into!?!?" XD

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    Replies
    1. It was just kind of a "So I found 16 books and we can narrow it down to 14" and he was just like, "...no."

      Thank you!

      Delete

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