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Summer Reading

Ell

Ell

Well-Known Member
Now that it's officially summer, what are your reading plans?

Do you 'save' books to read just for the summer? Maybe it's a bestseller that you just didn't have time to give your full attention to in the winter. Maybe it's a book that's been collecting dust on your shelves and is like the aunt you keep meaning to call, but somehow you just never get around to...?

Do you like something light and fluffy or big and meaty?

I'm curious, 'cause a couple of years ago I finally got around to reading 'War and Peace' over the summer. It was very rewarding and a good read, but I generally like something a light and entertaining when the weather gets hot and sticky.

I'll be going on a 2 week vacation soon and can't quite decide what to take with me. I've narrowed it down to the following:

- Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (sci-fi)
- The Uplift War by David Brin (sci-fi)
- "L" is for Lawless by Sue Grafton (detective)
- The Simple Truth by David Baldacci (murder-mystery)
- The Agony & the Esctascy by Irving Stone (historical fiction)
 
Originally posted by Ell
Do you 'save' books to read just for the summer?
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No, I can't say that I've ever thought about books in 'seasonal' terms. It's an interesting idea. After all, there are books that are easily associatable (is that a word?) with annual events like Christmas. Why not with the four seasons, too?

I do keep a record of books that I want to buy. If I see or think of an older work that I've never read, that goes on the list. I might not get round to it for ages, but at least I've got the reminder. Usually, though, the list is made up of recently or about-to-be published books that I see advertised or reviewed.

At the moment, I'm finishing WG Sebald's The Emigrants (review to follow, probably). That's one of the few books that's been in my collection for ages without ever having been touched. (My loss, as it turns out.) After that, I'll be buying Ann Patchett's new paperback, Bel Canto, which has won both the Orange Prize (for fiction) and the PEN/Faulkner this year. Oddly enough, the main reason I selected it is that the evening weather in my part of England has been distinctly summery of late, and the cover of this book is a summer evening photograph, deep red, sultry and mysterious. So there you go - seasonal influence.
Do you like something light and fluffy or big and meaty?
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I tend to go one and one, breaking up what I might pompously refer to as "real literature" with what I actually have :eek: referred to as "a book to read while between books".
... a couple of years ago I finally got around to reading 'War and Peace' over the summer. It was very rewarding and a good read...
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That makes you the third person I know to have read it (and I'm not among them). Quite an undertaking. Well done.

Tobytook
 
Tobytook said,
No, I can't say that I've ever thought about books in 'seasonal' terms. It's an interesting idea.
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You might be interested in the following link:Four Seaons of Reading

When I was a child, I used to looked forward to the summer school break so I could go to the library and savour books at my leisure. One of my favourite memories is of sitting under a tree at the park, reading to my heart's content. Ahh, freedom and endless summer (and in childhood it does seem endless) - no school, no schedules, no responsibilities ...

I still associate summer with that same feeling, though in fact, I don't have the same freedom and time.
 
here's what i plan to read...

*in no particular order*:)

- a classic
- a contemporary
- a memoir (if its not boring...most are :( )
- a biography *and I'm already reading one, in fact...it's on *are you ready for this?*....Spam. Yes, Spam, America's favourite luncheon meat! Don't ask...I saw it in the library and I thought it looked so cute I picked it up and started to read it. It's actually a pretty interesting book....:p -B


there's actually an official spam fan club...just saying that though noone probably cares :rolleyes:
 
Spam

bebe,

So, does the book tell you what Spam is really made out of? :D

I've always wondered. There's so much urban legend out there that says it's made from almost anything but meat! Is it true?
 
ponder no more, my friend...

You know, I've never heard any of those *urban legends* on Spam before, but whatever they are, they must be pretty interesting. So on to the true identity of Spam...*drumroll*.... it is pork shoulder blended with ham. Yes, that's right....good ol' Jay Hormel came along and one day and said, "Well gee, there's so much of this stuff maybe I could just use it." And use it, he did. I actually like Spam myself, *not enough to make me join the fan club, of course* and you gotta admit, just saying the word makes people smile. *unless they've had a whole barrage of it in their e-mail inboxes :p * So there you go...the truth behind the myths. Spread the knowledge! ;) -B
 
Hi! I'm hoping to read Don Quixote (I really enjoyed the TV movie) this summer but I haven't started yet. Right now I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov and A Beautiful Mind. I have more in a stack but I don't know what makes me think I'll have that much time to read them all... ;)

Some very recent reads were:
Malcolm MacDonald's The Carringtons of Helston,
Alice Carey's I'll Know It When I See It,
Jessica Inclan's Her Daughter's Eyes,
Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome
and Willa Cather's My Antonia.

As for "light and fluffy reading", I do prefer to lean in that direction when reading at the beach or pool -- or at least something I can read straight through.
 
good book, but i never finished it :p

I started to read Don Quixote once, but I have a pretty short attention span with long books, and they have to make me interested after the first couple chapters or i get tired of it. Don't get me wrong, its a great book; i'm just an impatient reader. I guess some people may take this like i'm sort of immature because of that, and i say i probably am, but who cares? :p -B

and people are right...you just can't concentrate on *heavy* books when the sun is shining and you don't want to over exercise your brain ;)
 
Ell said:
Now that it's officially summer, what are your reading plans?

Do you 'save' books to read just for the summer? Maybe it's a bestseller that you just didn't have time to give your full attention to in the winter. Maybe it's a book that's been collecting dust on your shelves and is like the aunt you keep meaning to call, but somehow you just never get around to...?
Click to expand...

I do that too! It's probably because I have a lot of time on my hands and I can just lounge around reading. My summer reading list includes:

Eragon by Chris Paolini
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Catcher and the Rye by J.D. Salinger
East of Eden by John Steinback
Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil (oral history on the Punk Movement)
A Hundred Little Hitlers by Elinor Langer
The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman
On The Road by John Kerouac
 
During the summer i'll be reading....

1) Catch22
2) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
3) The Da Vinci Code
4) Oryx and Crake
 
I leave for North Carolina in a week and I'll be reading Blindness by Saramago. I'm looking forward to the trip...:)
 
It's the same season all year round for me, but I'll try and put my newly acquired summer dates knowledge to good use! For summer, I plan to have a Ray Bradbury extravaganza! They are pretty thin books, so shouldn't take long.

Martian Chronicles (had it for ages, but still sitting in TBR)
Fahrenheit 451 (ditto)
Dandelion Wine (recently acquired)

ds
 
i used to have seasonal reading, especially when summer was a distinct time of inactivity, however, now with the kids etc, whenever i can get some reading in is good. if i am going to the beach or cottage i will take something light and fun, because i find my mood can be so altered by what i am reading that it is just more enjoyable for everyone if my book is light.
 
I don't really plan what I read I just do it. But I am reading Steinbeck and I will get through a few of his books. Also I am going to read the new Harry Potter book.
 
Summer school. Sigh...

So, I'm taking a class called, "The English Novel in the 19th Century."
Here is what I must read between today (June 5th) to July 11th:
  • Guy Mannering by Walter Scott
  • Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
  • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (which I've read 8 years ago)
  • Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  • Middlemarch by George Eliot

Any comments?
 
I plan on finishing the Hitchhikers series and reading the first Thomas Covenant book this summer. I started both ages ago, but I haven't had much reading time yet this year.
 
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