Great literature

After discovering a wonderful website Gutenberg.org I have opened my mind to literature from the olden days. Downtime at work has generally consisted of Open University reading which is great but sometimes you just need to do something a little different. Generally I would not read books that were written so far back, usually sticking with Harry Potter and Patricia Cornwell etc…. However after finding this website I decided to expand my reading tastes.

George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty-Four – This is a truly fantastic book with a great story. I am aware that there are underlying themes about repression however to just take this book on face value it is wonderful read. I was however expecting a Hollywood style ending and was left a little ‘depressed’ as although it was a fantastic ending, it doesn’t lead to my idea of happiness.

George Orwell – Animal Farm – This is a short book and only took two days to finish. It’s a great story line all about animals, once again I know it has underlying themes but it was an interesting view on life without the Hollywood ending.

I am going to start the Great Gatsby next although my stepfather suggested Grapes of Wrath which is about the great depression however I was unable to find this so the Great Gatsby it shall be.

Back to OU:

I am currently reading the first chapter in the Research Methods book on thematic analysis which is making it all seem a little less daunting. I believe that if I keep this systematic then I should be okay. I have already watch the Chloe interview through once and printed off the transcription so the next job is to watch it again and create a coding system. Little steps will freak me out a little less.

DSE212 TMA04 is due Wednesday. I will be staying in on Monday night and will play with it on my day off on Tuesday ready for submission. I am going to dictate it all using Windows Speech Recognition so fingers crossed it works pretty well. I plan to spend a fair bit of the weekend training the software which I know will be mind numbingly dull but rather vital. I am really excited by the whole prospect of WSR.

SD226 TMA05 is still a few weeks off so I want DSE212 TMA04 out of the way before I get going.

I plan to create a step by step guide to thematic analysis on here once I’ve got my head around it which I will be able to reuse throughout my OU studies and beyond.