"Never judge a book by its movie."

I was told that is was not ‘sexy’ to propose to the teaching innovation fund that I wanted to buy a number of books for the design students in my contextual studies lessons. Why don’t they buy their own? Borrow them from the library? I was told as disbelief came over the faces of perplexed colleagues. It’s not very digital and rather old fashioned seemed to be the consensus. A week ago a 3rd year student walking down the corridor and said ‘...wow that fantastic book, best I’ve read....’ as I was giving out No More Rules: Postmodernism and Graphic Design to a group of 1st year students. My aim with this project was to engage the students in reading and to allow them to read complex key texts that would enhance their learning and thinking about their design work. They all needed to be reading the same text at the same time and for a good length of time without the fear of a fine. There were a range of emotions as I handed out the copies of the books that had been bought through the funding. From a Christmas present opening glee to a look of fear of some of the student’s faces, the task had only begun. I would argue that without all the students having the same opportunities to start with then we are immediately disadvantaging some of the students who may not have the confidence, finances or appetite to read the texts we all ask them to. This project in a small way addressed some of the issues of students not reading what we wanted them to read. It has been both sustainable and educationally rewarding as the books are passed down from one year to the next and conversations start.

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