My summer reading list

I decide to create a summer reading list for myself for a number of reasons. My first impetus was this post from The Bygone Bureau, even though I don’t think that I will read any of the books on their list, with the possible exception of The Demolished Man (I am always looking for good sci-fi books to read). The post got me thinking about summer reading when I was in high school, and what a chore it seemed back then. Today, I wish someone would hand me lists of great books to read during the summer. So I became determined to create such a list for myself, based on other public lists and the large stack of unread books sitting in my basement. The result is below. It is not particularly ambitious, but this is a good thing. I have uses besides reading for my free time, but I also often fall victim to overly ambitious lists. I spend hours listing what it is I want to do or accomplish and then spend little time actually doing anything because I am so overwhelmed by the length of the list.

1. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I am slowly re-reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula (publishing the journal entries and letters on the date they were written in the story is simply creative and brilliant), and from what I have heard The Historian is similarly-themed. I believe the books will complement each other nicely. I’ve also gathered that, as alluded to by the title, it reads like a history. Considering how much I enjoyed the last piece of heavily-footnoted fictional history I read (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell), I am excited about this book.
2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is my favorite book. It has been years since I last read it, a shame only redeemed by the fact that I have read it five times already. I have been avoiding re-reading it because I get very wrapped up in the story. While this is certainly not bad (it is a compliment to the author and is evidence of how much I enjoy the story), it does cut deeply into my time. This results in a dramatic reduction in how much I sleep, and I already do not sleep enough. However, it has been too long since I last saw Middle-Earth, so I plan on taking the plunge this summer and break in my faux-leather-bound collectors’ edition.
3. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. This is yet another great novel that has been collecting dust on my bookshelf for far too long. I’ve heard that reading it will make my own family seem less crazy, which alone is a good reason to read it.
4. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon. This received a good review from my father-in-law, and I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I have a quick story regarding the latter. I tried to convince my wife to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and the pitch went like this: “It’s a really good book. It’s about a Jewish boy and his Czech cousin living in New York City during World War II (wife appears interested) writing comic books (wife rolls eyes and returns book to shelf).
5. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I have not read this book and I have no excuse why not. It is a classic of science fiction literature (come on, it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards) so I should ^[1] read it, and the themes seem like things I will really enjoy.
6. Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins. I am not and have never been a huge fan of comic books. However, this is another influential classic that I should read, and will most likely enjoy reading. As I said, I am not a huge fan of comic books, but I do like them.

That’s it. It is not groundbreaking and serves no one’s purpose but my own. However, I like it. It contains a good combination of heavier reads (I do not expect to fly through The Historian and I like to savor The Lord of the Rings) and lighter, covering multiple genres but focusing on the ones I like. There are a lot of books that I want to read, so I will add to this list if I manage to get through a couple of these.

[1] I hate hearing about books I “should” read in some sort of global, literary sense. In my mind, there is no such thing. I use the phrase here on a personal level. I am telling myself I should read it because I think that it will be beneficial to me.