Building Stories (and a Wrap from Dan and Brendan)

Here is the last of the sessions on Books for Breakfast (CFRU 93.3FM) with Dan Evans. This time two pre-recorded sessions about Chris Ware’s book, Building Stories. First Jared and then Sarah and Farwa. In between and at the end Dan and Brendan (the co-host who has been MIA for a few weeks) talk about the course, the students, the books, and (yikes) even me.

Have a listen:

https://soundcloud.com/mridley/building-stories-and-wrap

As things wind down I owe Dan and Brendan of Books for Breakfast a huge thank you! They have been brilliant to collaborate with and stunning in their interactions with the students. I couldn’t have asked for better partners in this adventure.

….Mike

Where to Now?

The Book course is now past the mid way point. The students have reflected on their books, presented on the Books for Breakfast radio show, and some have started to comment here on their experiences in class.

We’ve had some fun and stimulating discussions about the future of the book, banning books, and looking at “odd” or interesting books (we hosted an “odd book” petting zoo in the last class; quite entertaining and enlightening).

So, now what?

The students are regrouping a bit to decide how to approach the next assignment. They are going to select a topic that arises from their previous deliberations and go back on Books for Breakfast to talk about it with Dan and Brendan. They can do this as a team or individually. Some parts can be pre-recorded to involve all team members. Should be interesting!

As they are thinking about this we are going to do some class road trips. First to the Children’s Library at the main branch of the Guelph Public Library (storytime!), then a wonderful excursion to visit the Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto and Coach House Books, a Canadian publishing pioneer. Finally we’ll also go to Publication Studio in Guelph and actually make books.

In between all that we’ll talk about reading digitally, designing books, collecting books, and lots more. Don’t you wish you were in class with us?

….Mike

Update to the Course

A quick update to let our readers know that we have decided NOT to use the Gutenberg Bible as one of our books. While this makes me (Mike) sad, I’ll get over it.

The next step for the course is to create book biographies and to present them on Books for Breakfast on CFRU.

…Mike

What’s Going on Here?

This blog is part of a First Year Seminar course at the University of Guelph during the Fall 2014 semester. As part of the learning objectives the students will use this site to reflect on ideas and issues that arise from class discussions and their project assignments. 

Six teams have been created around six books. The books are not so much the content of the course as starting points for the student teams to begin thinking about the nature (and future) of the book. 

Each student will post frequently about some aspect of the book or their reflections on topics covered or experiences 

I hope you enjoy following their progress. And, of course, we encourage you to comment.

…Mike Ridley, Course Instructor

www.Michael Ridley.ca