I thought I was so smart when I asked if I could do my book review for a class on movies instead of books.

“I’ll read the scripts,” I explained to my teacher, knowing all the while that I would probably only watch the movies.

This, like all things not done honestly, backfired. I suddenly found myself needing to watch six hours of movies about cancer. Plus, are you aware of how many movies you think are about cancer, but aren’t? One of the films I chose, “Patch Adams,” only mentions cancer patients once, when he visits the children’s ward.

It was also really depressing to watch so much cancer and death. I found myself watching “Stepmom” in my room, alone, with the lights off, crying. I wasn’t sobbing as in “The Notebook,” crying, but if someone had walked in, they would have thought it was strange. I know this, because when someone walked in they said I looked strange.

I inevitably had to read each script, because even though characters on TV do it all the time, writing a book review but only watching the movie is difficult. I kept finding myself describing how they looked or something else aesthetically not in scripts.

Moral of this story? If you get an assignment to do a book review, don’t try to get around it. My roommate chose some awesome book that she finished quickly.