Reddit mentions of A History of Reading

Of these, I've only taken SMC229, and I took it in Spring 2014. If you do the reading, you'll understand the content and be fine for the midterm test and possibly even the essay. If Jenna Sunkenberg is teaching it, she is a very caring and intelligent instructor. If you express any challenges you have to her (via email or during her office hours), she will help you to understand the content better. She is also open to creative submissions of final assignments, if that isn't too intimidating.

The weekly reading doesn't tend to be long, but it can be dense and full of terms you haven't seen before. Read them before class and make notes with your questions. Most of your questions will be resolved during lecture. The year I took it, the textbook wasn't terribly expensive.

If you're on a waitlist, you might not get off of it easily, since it's a mandatory course for a Book and Media Studies major or minor. The program has grown a lot in the last years and the courses aren't big enough to accommodate the students who are interested. Generally the people who take the class are friendly and could be interested in doing things like studying together. There will be a few moments in lecture where you'll have to talk to other people about ideas you had while reading.