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Ohio might be like a drunk uncle, but it’s your drunk uncle.

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Pick ONE chapter, read (or skim) it, then spend five minutes thinking of something mildly interesting or intuitive to say about it. That way it looks like you read, and you’ll knock out a class participation requirement. The same goes for papers — choose a topic or theme that’s contained in only a few chapters of a book, read those chapters, and you’ll be as informed as you need to be to write a well-thought-out essay.