I love history.  So much, in fact, that I will read it on my own.

See, me reading history, on my own, for fun, seems to confuse some people.  And me reading for fun seems to confuse people too, especially if I’m reading anything that’s an “English class book.”  An “English class book” is basically my phrase for books that are considered classics…basically, anything you’d probably read in an English class.  It’s almost like I have to be reading it for a class, because people apparently don’t read Pride And Prejudice or Dracula for fun.  But I really need to read more classics, because there are a lot of books that I haven’t read, and I feel like I’m missing out on some books I feel like I need to read at least once.

Like The Diary Of Anne Frank.  I have NEVER read it, and I swear I’m not making this up.  I don’t think we even read an excerpt of it.  1984?  Never read it either.  Lord Of The Flies?  If you guessed that I haven’t read it, you guessed right.  I definitely need to read some of these books, but if I don’t like them, that’s fine, because the goal is to at least try to read them.

But back to history.  It’s true, I don’t have a degree in history.  And I don’t have one in English either.  Nope.  My degree is in sociology.

A lot of people think I studied English.  I understand that, because I like writing, and I read a lot.  Sometimes, it is entertaining to see people’s reaction when I tell them I studied sociology and not English.

On rare occasion, someone thinks I studied history, because I like reading Tudor history.  Someone even asked me once why I studied sociology, and not English or history.  Since I really like history, and I really like reading, it would make sense to study it, right?

Not exactly.  See, I love reading, and I find history really interesting.  But I know that those are 2 things that I will continue to do.  It’s not that I like sociology more because I have a degree in it.  It’s really that I know I don’t need any kind of encouragement or pushing to do it on my own.  I guess you could say that I’m a self-learner…I have no problem doing it on my own.

I do wish that I had the chance to take more history and English/literature classes.  There were more than a few that looked interesting.  But with an entire section of iTunes that’s devoted to podcasts posted by universities, I’ll be able to “take” some classes.  While there are a lot of classes that don’t seem to be posted, there are still more than enough podcasts for me to pick from.  Plus, they’re free, I can listen to them at my own pace, and I don’t have to do any homework or assigned reading.  I’ve looked it before, but wasn’t too interested.  But it’s time to listen to something new, I think, and I might as well see what’s out there.  I’ll definitely talking about them in the near future.