My Summer Reading List (or, My Binding Contract with the Internet)
Yesterday I spent approximately fifteen hours traveling on three different flights, which was sort of rough. I never fail to be exactly one row away from the only baby on the flight, and this trip was no exception. The screaming was intense. Ugh. One saving grace for my voyage was the completion of my first summer read- The Silver Linings Playbook. I loved the movie, and the book was equally remarkable (although it was hard for me to stop picturing Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as the characters... shouldn't have seen the movie first). The fact that I was reading purely for pleasure made my travel day fly by. Don’t get me wrong, I typically enjoy my readings for classes. But there’s something about devouring a book without the impending obligation to come up with compelling discussion points for class that makes reading for fun just a little bit better.
Since I had such a great time yesterday, I decided to compile a reading list for this summer. Although I’m working, I’m banking on having a lot of free time because, well, no homework.
- Catcher in the Rye- It’s sort of unbelievable that I haven’t read this. Somehow it didn’t make it onto any of my high school lit classes’ reading lists. Or maybe I just missed it…
- Harry Potter series- Every summer I relive my childhood, and it is fantastic. I highly recommend an annual reread of this series.
- Infinite Jest- I sort of casually promised to read this with my friend so that we could have book discussions. Let’s see how it goes.
- Looking for Alaska- I read The Fault in Our Stars a few months ago and cried like a baby. Here’s hoping that this one doesn’t cripple me emotionally for a I’d-rather-not-talk-about-it amount of time.
- And the Mountains Echoed- "The New York Times" told me I should read it, and it's just easier to listen to what they say rather than argue about it.
- That long email my grandma sent me during finals week that just seemed too much to handle at the time- I’ve run out of excuses.
Have I missed anything?