Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Summer Reading List

So I'm a day late for the first day of Summer.  Meh, not my favorite season.  Hot, muggy, sweaty, sticky.  And bugs.  If you haven't noticed yet, I hate bugs.  Worst things to have been created/evolved/brought here by aliens.  Did you know that even with all of the insecticides we've created as a race, we've never been able to eradicate ONE species of bug?  We've almost killed off some of the most badass animals ever (I'm talking to you, dead Siberian tigers), but a moth?  Nope.

I think that's true. Probably is.  I heard it once, so it must be.

Anyway, since it's Summertime, and the livin's easy (especially after monday, which is the end of my sandpaper-rubbing-on-my-eyeballs summer class), I plan on reading more.  And in the spirit of school, I've compiled for you my Summer Reading list, which I desperately hope to get through.

1.  Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert - I'm a big French Lit fan, and a medium Flaubert fan.  I mildly enjoyed Mme Bovary, and heard Sentimental Education was a home run book.  This book has been sitting on my bedside table for a month, and I'm finally looking forward to beating the crap out of it.  Intellectually.

2.  Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, MD - I want to buy this book so badly because my wife is kicking the pants off me in reading to Sammy.  This book is really just a proxy for all English language rhyming books for children.  See here for more details on my reading angst.

3.  Betsy and I had a Stroke - This book was written in secret by my overly dramatic grandfather.  I only just came across it because of a manic bout of family-oriented Name-Googling whose impetus was brought on because of a case study in one of my classes.  My grandpa is a bit of a gossip, so I want to read it before it permeates the family and enters the "spin-zone". 

4.  Star Wars Encyclopedia - I think the title pretty much sums up every reason to ever read this book.  They say War and Peace is the best book ever?  Psh - move over Pierre Bezukhov and your three thousand other characters - Luke Skywalker's in town.

While I'd love to add some more to this list, I realize I've really only got eight weeks, and there's lots of "Summering" to do other than being boring by reading books. For example, I've been putting off War and Peace for...well, as long as I knew it was a book. 

Are there any books you can suggest I should substitute in?  What are you reading over the Summer?  And please don't say Charles Dickens.

5 comments:

  1. I didn't know you were into French literature! Me too. Does the Three Musketeers count?

    Here's what I'm trying to read this summer:
    1)http://www.sheikhsbatmobile.com/
    2)http://www.amazon.com/Instructions-Adam-Levin/dp/1934781827
    3)http://www.amazon.com/Winter-Arabia-Freya-Stark/dp/0879512784

    I'm also really into Kindle Singles. I don't have a Kindle, but I read them on my Android phone and sometimes on my computer...you can get Kindle for Mac for free. Each one costs like $2 bucks and you get a solid 45 minutes of reading out of them. Longer than a magazine article, shorter than a novella. Here are the ones I liked :

    http://www.amazon.com/Three-Cups-Deceit-Humanitarian-ebook/dp/B004XHVOW4
    http://www.amazon.com/Sparkle-ebook/dp/B004QOA434/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308764071&sr=1-3

    http://www.amazon.com/Lost-in-Kandahar-ebook/dp/B004S41OLI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308764108&sr=1-1

    I think this one's a book you guys could read together and discuss, because it's not just about Russian books, but about an outsider, in this case Elif, looking in at Russian culture and then inverting it. Really funny and enjoyable.

    http://www.amazon.com/Possessed-Adventures-Russian-Books-People/dp/0374532184

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  2. I have nothing. Nothing. I really need to go read the half dozen books I've half read. Good luck with your list!

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  3. I'm planning on reading House Rules by Jodi Picoult. I hope I can get through at least one book while chasing after my toddler this summer.

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  4. Right now I'm reading "If On a Winter's Night a Traveller" by Italo Calvino and hating every page of it. "Pillars of the Earth" is next b/c I never read it and it just seems like I should.

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  5. I always recommend Mil Millington's Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About. It's funny, it doesn't weigh you down and I LOVE IT.

    So, that. Enjoy.

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