[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="234" caption="Margaret Atwood&#39;s--The Handmaid&#39;s Tale"]<img title="Margaret Atwood's--The Handmaid's Tale" src="http://jacketsandcovers.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/handmaids-tale.jpg?w=234&amp;h=364" alt="" width="234" height="362" />[/caption]

I am going to start teaching Atwood's <em>The Handmaid's Tale</em> this week and in rereading it I was surprised how little of it I actually remember after reading it one summer in college. Here's my conclusion: it's such a good book. Now I am afraid.  I am afraid that teaching it is going to ruin it.

When I started studying literature in college on of my professors asked us this: how many of you love reading?  Every hand raises. Then she continued with this: this semester you will learn to hate it and if you're lucky by the end of the term you'll be able to rebuild your love of literature.

What she meant was this, reading when done right is hard work and when you study literature you stop reading for pleasure and you start digging.  In my case, I was lucky to be good at the digging, thinking and writing required of students of literature and I learned how to love literature.

But this past week when I finished reading <em>The Handmaid's Tale</em>, I thought: what a good book and a well told story. I realized that I<em> liked</em> reading it--that even though I started rereading it because I had to when I finished reading it, it was with pleasure.  I am connected to this book.

That's why I am afraid. I am afraid that in teaching it I am going to ruin it. That the act of teaching a novel I like it will ruin it. That my students will ruin it. That I'll ruin it and end up hating it.

I sincerely hope that this is not the case but still I am worried.