Summer Reading
I finished Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix (book 5) today after having started it on Monday. It’s been a while since I read a book for fun, and I’m on a quest to find more good summer time reading. I know my brother has a long list of things he’s supposed to read before school starts in the fall, and he’s not looking forward to it, but it’s probably got more to do with the fact that he’s being forced to, not the subject matter. I’m not sure why summertime inspires so much reading, but it seems people talk about reading far more often during the summer than they do at other times of the year. To be honest, curling up in the winter with a good book sounds just as good as laying out in the hammock with a good book. Ok, time to reel the tangent back in…
I’ve thought about reading some of the “classics” I never read when I was supposed to, but I don’t even really remember what all of those are. I plan to intersperse my fun reading with more weighty scholarly stuff. Ya right.
Summer reading. What’s on your list?
July 10th, 2003 at 9:35 am
Here’s my reading list for the summer or however long it takes me:
Lord of the Rings – All three books.
Kris and I started reading The Hobbit out loud before the movies came out, but never finished. It was our intention to read all the books, but somehow The Hobbit would manage to put us to sleep after about 3 pages. Time to try again, and just going to skip The Hobbit.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
This is a rather sizeable book that’s been sitting on our bookshelf untouched for quite some time now.
After that, I don’t know. I think it will take me a while to get through just those.
July 10th, 2003 at 11:41 am
I agree with Lord of the Rings, and that should take you the rest of the summer too.
Another great series is the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, also pretty thick reading, but great fantasy (like LOTR).
And for great science fiction, if you have not read it, is the Ender series (Ender’s Game is the best one, but the rest of the series is not bad either). I am still catching up in the shadow series, the new spin-off of the original series, and it is pretty good as well.
I think that is enough for now, good luck with all your new choices.
July 10th, 2003 at 11:44 am
Oh, and just a helpful tip for anyone reading LOTR (including the Hobbit), sometimes the only way to make it is to skim through the songs and the immense descriptions, otherwise you tend to lose sight of the good stuff. The good stuff is REALLY GOOD when you get there, but you have to make it there first. Just a little pointer to prevent anyone from getting discouraged, because it is very easy to give up on those books.
July 10th, 2003 at 2:04 pm
reading….hmmm…I’m currently in the middle of several books: Harry Potter V, of course, and then there’s Random Family and The Accidental Tourist (on loan from Diane). In the que are: Gilligan’s Wake, Dune, et al., and Stranger in a Strange Land. That will all take me the rest of the year probably to finish!
July 10th, 2003 at 4:26 pm
Well I just finished the fourth book in the “Anita Blake Vampire Hunter” series and started reading Harry Potter from the beginning 2 days ago…I’m into Azkaban now. After the HP series, I move onto A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin (which is a trilogy, i think) then I read the new book by William Gibson, then onto the Wheel Of Time.
July 10th, 2003 at 4:29 pm
So what “classics” are you going to read?
July 10th, 2003 at 8:46 pm
classics? me? I still want to read a few books by Vonnegut. I read Slaughterhouse Five, excellent. Perhaps Breakfast for Champions will be next as far as classics go. I have Dracula on my shelf begging to be read.
The only books I really enjoyed in school were Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm so I try to stay far away from “Classics”. Crap like the Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome. I would probably read Fahrenheit 451, since that’s the type of classic I would get into.
July 10th, 2003 at 8:55 pm
Things like Catch 22, Catcher in the Rye, Slaughterhouse 5, Grapes of Wrath… the stuff I’m “supposed” to have read and should be able to reference in casual conversation, but can’t
July 11th, 2003 at 9:18 am
Yeah, I found that most of the classics that I’ve read have not been through school. Maybe…two. Catcher in the Rye I read on my own. LOVE IT! Can’t even really tell you why, maybe it’s just seeing *bad* words in print…maybe it was the time of life. I’ve had The Jungle on the shelf for YEARS. The problem with some of those classics is that they are just SO DEPRESSING.
July 11th, 2003 at 9:33 am
How dare you blaspheme The Great Gatsby. I love that book. I remember liking Ethan Frome too, but not so much. I liked The Jungle. Also Pride and Prejudice.
Catcher in the Rye is one I should read again. Catch 22 I’ve never read, Grapes of Wrath I don’t think I read, and have not read Slaughterhouse 5. I guess I’ll add those to my list. Any other suggestions?
July 12th, 2003 at 7:38 am
If you liked Harry Potter, look at (non-classics) like the Dark is Rising Series by Susan Cooper.
August 8th, 2003 at 6:25 pm
Despite the fact that my summer is nearly over *sniff*, I read through HP:OotP in about 5x as long as Sarah did (Freak!), and as soon as I get my new library card, I’ll be reading Peter Pan, the original one by J.M. Barrie, in order to prepare myself for the Peter Pan movie coming out ’round Xmas time.
Since I don’t know how to do hyperlinks with this system:
Http://www.peterpanmovie.net
Yum.