The Tiger's Quest includes a course I teach?

Back in January, when winter term began, a student, "Z," requested that he be included in my class on the Indian Subcontinent though he wouldn't take it for credit.  I had no problems with that.  I am all for helping students learn in every possible way and, if this structured approach helps, why not, right?

The term ended and we are now in "Spring Break."  I don't know what other faculty do, but, I am busy reading and preparing for the next term that will begin in a week.  I suppose the break I get is that I don't have to drive to campus this entire week!

"Z" emailed me:

I am home for spring break, and my sister showed me a book she is reading in which the main character attends Western Oregon University. I was expecting to see the courses to be made up, but one of the featured classes is Geog 315, Indian Subcontinent!

Holy crap!

He had included a photo of the page from that very book, Tiger's Quest:

Holy crap!!!

In my reply, I wrote:

I am panicking on whether the freshman in the story gave the GEOG 315 faculty a horrible rating!!!  I don't care for the story; let me know if there is any evaluation of the faculty in that book ;)

Curiosity being the middle name that my parents did not give me, I Googled for the book and then tweeted the author about this.  I am delighted that the author replied:

@congoboy This is true. =)
— Colleen Houck (@ColleenHouck) March 25, 2013

With the recent Life of Pi and then this Tiger's Quest, which is the second in a series, I wonder whether there will be an increased interest among the young to know more about the Indian Subcontinent.  I hope so.

As for the evaluation of the faculty or the course, well, after reading an email from a student who was in that very class that recently concluded, I really have nothing to panic about.  The student, "M," writes in that email:

I truthfully took this class because I needed one more class so I would be full time and I thought it would be an easy A. Every other online class I have taken was an easy A. This class wasn't so much. I worked hard for every paper we wrote and scrap of research I read. I had to go above anything I have ever put into an online class before. That being said…I loved this class. The biggest thing I loved (outside of the gaining of knowledge) about this class was the challenge. I had to have structure or I wouldn't remember everything I needed to get in or read for the week. The second thing I loved was this class didn't just educate me it educated my husband and young daughter. I would read to my daughter and make my husband read the articles then we would have great discussions. Then I would post the links on facebook lol. I also posted my weekly discussions with it and my papers

There are very few things that excite me as much as when students tell me--on their own, and with no prompts from me--about how they ended up discussing the course materials with friends or family.  I am hoping that the young, and old, readers of Tiger's Quest would take courses on the Subcontinent and share with their families and friends their understanding of a very important part of the world.

Looking forward to the spring term, already!