Essay Week 2: Reviewing Ovid I

Because this week was the first week we used the Un-Textbook, I was a little shaky on everything. At first, I couldn’t decide what unit to select. I wanted to try to create some sort of order or connection between my readings, but I abandoned that idea quickly and decided to go for whatever sounded good to me at the time. I’m not sure if this will necessarily help me in the long run, but I don’t think it’ll hurt me either.

First of all, I think the Un-Textbook is really cool. It’s awesome that you’ve taken the time to assemble something with so much variety and I like to think it's a resource I’ll use even after I’m finished with this class. It feels very personalized, which I like, and we didn’t have to pay for it, which I like even more!

The unit I selected was Ovid’s Metamorphoses I. I enjoyed these readings. After I sat down and focused, I was able to knock all of the readings and the reading journals out in a couple of hours. To be honest, I was a little overwhelmed at first, but length turned out to not be an issue for me at all. I liked most of the stories, but I was also familiar with most of the stories in some capacity.

I thought the notes at the beginning of each story were really helpful. I don’t think any additional background information would be necessary to understand the readings, but some type of name chart or family tree might help to keep things straight. Some of the stories use multiple names for the same character, but thankfully you pointed this out in your notes at the beginning in most cases.

I liked this unit and thought the description of it was straightforward. I also liked that it was several stories making up one unit, as opposed to one long reading taking up an entire unit. Personally, I find it easier to focus on readings if they’re broken up more like that.

(A depiction of Ovid, Wikimedia Commons)