i'll be the first to admit that i am not a great reader. i love to read. i love the thought of "curling up with a good book", but i am not well-versed enough with the vast selection of literature to know what i will love or hate. and this is why everytime i go to sunflower, i always get the general tsao's, because i already know it's good and i'm afraid to try anything else for fear of wasting calories. same goes for books - i fear wasted book calories. if i'm going to read something, i want it to be good.
(though, side note, maybe i should take the same approach to movies as i do to books - i've seen some pretty crappy movies in my day just for entertainments sake.)
anyway.
in the spirit of summer vacation, i am going to make up a summer reading list. i want to fill it with a variety of books, including my favorite genres: biographies, historical non-fiction (especially early U.S. or eastern european wartime), dystopian sci-fi, and jane austen. yes ms. austen has her own genre. i'm also going to branch out and read some things i usually wouldn't, like good fiction or mysteries. why not.
so, now is the part of this post where i ask you what books are on YOUR summer reading list? or what could you recommend to me? i have a hard time starting with this stuff, but as i've found with running lately if you just stick to it and make a goal, wild things can happen.
p.s. i'm still reeling over my 4 mile run yesterday. yay!
p.p.s. did you know i tried to write a book about dystopian society a while ago? ahhh, i still laugh about it.
5 comments:
i recommend nearly all of the books on my Goodreads list particularly any labeled with 5 stars (which is a lot, i too tend to pick books i already know i will love)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is on there, this fits your eastern European wartime, and is beautifully written
Persepolis is one i really connected with - and is a historical non-fiction autobiography, covers at least two of your categories.. also is illustrated by the author herself, she did the graphics for the film as well so it is similar in style
one i am working on now is Dune, one of the ultimate dystopian sci-fis
We already talked about The Help, so go for that. I am always looking for a good read. I just read the latest dan brown novel and: meh. A dan brown is a dan brown.
oh my gosh. at lomas ("welcome to lomas") someone had left a copy of stephen king's "under the dome." i didn't finish it (it was 877 pages) but there's some creepy dystopian sci-fi for you. and a lot of rape and murder and f-words. so... i can't say i whole-heartedly recommend it. haha.
right now... i am working on "the diving bell and the butterfly" (loved the movie, and the book is really short [i don't know why i haven't finished it yet]), "my mother's castle" (memoirs of a french boy's childhood; one of robbie's favorites that he gave to me for christmas), and "one thousand years of solitude" (i read "love in the time of cholera" last summer and got on a marquez kick). anyway, i have gotten into the horrible habit of picking up books and putting them back down again because i'm running out of time to read. so i've got a huge stack.
i also just got three books in the mail for my summer class ("culture of consumption"... starting in the 1700s and the sugar trade) that look kind of interesting (although i'm not all that interested in colonial anything). richard bushman (who wrote "rough stone rolling") wrote one of them so that should be interesting.
i also have a poorly-kept goodreads profile with other books that i liked and hated. also, my sisters and my mom and i (but mostly my mom) have a book blog. and for some reason my mom posts about movies a lot but she reads a ton from all kinds of genres and usually has some good short reviews. see here.
My two favorites as of late are "These is My Words" By Nancy Turner and "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer - LOVED both of them! But I'm always up for "Pride and Prejudice". I've also been really interested in "The Happiness Project" and currently have it on hold, I'll let you know how it turns out.
You inspire me. I am not a good reader, either. I always say I don't love to read, but ya know, I've never really tried that hard to become a "reader". Perhaps we can start a long-distance book club? I could use some motivation and someone to hold me accountable. ha.
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