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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6 comments:
My goal for the summer is to finish Drop City by T.C. Boyle. My second book is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and while this may take me the rest of the summer (and perhaps some of the school year), I'll list others as wishful thinking.
Recommendations from Ben:
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
And of course education books like "The First Days of School" and "Why Didn't I Learn this in College?"!!!
I too treasure summer as a time to catch up on all the books I find throughout the year. Here is my list!
A Little History of the World - E. H. Gombrich
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
Hot, Flat, and Crowded - Thomas L. Friedman
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Work Hard. Be Nice. - Jay Matthews
Brain Rules - John Medina
Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America - Donna Foote
There are more but we’ll see how it goes with these first.
Enjoy the summer!
Jon
Carrie; Drop City, Atlas Shrugged, and especially Middlesex are so great, it's imperative that you find time to start/finish them!
-Meaghan
Great list Jon! I've heard that Relentless Pursuit is well done, and I'm ever the Hemingway fan. Have a fun summer, buddy!
Meaghan gotta give you thanks for the positive book reviews, but who do you think you are, Roger Ebert! Put your own list up there.
Blink (thank you Studie)
Middlesex (thank you Ben)
Brief History of Time (thank you Mike)
The Boys on the Bus (thank you Sara)
I've got to get finished Ken Robinson's book 'The Element' After that who knows
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