The chaotic end of the school year brings along with it deadlines, piles of paper and homework, and excitement for summer--all crumpled up into a tidy ball and hurled at teachers and students at ludicrous speed. We true reading junkies try to find time in the midst of distraction and minutiae to choose stories we can still get lost in while remaining high functioning addicts in the real world.
Alas, throughout my life--and despite my best efforts--I've never been able to grasp the same freedom and escape that I've enjoyed while reading in the summer. Summer brings with its balmy climes the promise of an elusive treasure seldom captured during a busy school season. Time. Even when keeping busy in the summer there is ample time for various literary pursuits.
Everybody needs a summer reading list. Despite the fact that summer vacation applies to a small fraction of our population, creating a summer list can give you the gumption to pick up some of those books you've "been meaning to get to". If you've been holding off on seeing the film adaptation of
Revolutionary Road, (Leo and Kate together for the first time since
Titanic!) because you want to read
Richard Yates' novel first--check it out! It's great.
Or maybe you've been dying to expand your reading repertoire and want to tackle a classic. Here is my only recommendation of Jane Austin--
Pride and Prejudice--with a twist that would make George Romero smirk.
Make a commitment--at least to a list. Ok, so maybe, despite it being summer, you still won't have time to finish a list of summer readings. But you
can take the first step. So, let us hear it.
What books are on your summer reading list this year?
Ben's List
- The Human Stain - Philip Roth (Currently Reading)
- Driftless - David Rhodes
- The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
- Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
- My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro - Jeffrey Eugenides
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