The Seagull Reader: Essays

I bought the Seagull Reader essay collection a few months ago for an English class, and so far have been very pleased with it so far. Many of the essays I had already read, in whole or in part, by other anthropologies. However, the Seagull collection is extremely user friendly, concise, and features great introductions before each piece. Overall, I am very pleased that I do not have to lug around a 12 pound book every other day like I had to in high school. Also, the price and cover design is very attractive and reminiscent of "old-school" notebooks. My ONLY real complaint is that the soft-cover can get annoying at times. It seems to bend rather easily, and while it hasn't caused too much of an annoyance, I would have paid a few extra dollars for a hardcover edition (if one such exists).

College freshmen hate reading. They don't read instructions, they don't read their class schedules, and they don't read textbooks. However, if it's short enough to read in a few minutes and controversial enough to cause an argument, they will read. That's the great thing about the Seagull Readers. It offers an enormous variety of topics from authors whose writing spans centuries. It's a great way to introduce non-readers to the idea of analyzing writing. Take a peek - it's entertaining reading just for pleasure too.

Although somewhat abstract, most of the essays in this book are really fun to read. I ordered this book, and I received a different cover than the picture shows. Don't worry, it is the same book, and works with my English Composition class.