I have joined a Summer Reading Challenge – hosted by and set up by Amanda.
BOOKS I WILL READ (AND POST ABOUT) THIS SUMMER
oh, and naturally I reserve the right to change this list at any time. But for now – here are my intentions!
Bleak House 
– by Charles Dickens (finally! I love Ted’s post on it … inspired me to finally put it on Ye Olde reading list)
Veronica
– by Mary Gaitskill
A Passage to India
– by EM Forster
Something Happened
– by Joseph Heller
Villette
– by Charlotte Bronte
The French Revolution: A History (Modern Library Classics)
– by Thomas Carlyle – I’ve been 1/4 of the way thru this book for, uhm, many months … it’s so dense, and slow-going – takes so much concentration – but I really MUST finish it. I can tell it’s going to be worth it. It already IS worth it – but a deadline would be helpful, to force me to finish it.
One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation “Wrath of God”
– by Simon Reeve
Billy Budd
– by Herman Melville – YES! I WILL RE-READ IT. I will see if it is just as loathsome as I remember from high school. But – most importantly – I will keep an open mind. After all, I hated Moby Dick once upon a time too and now look what has happened!
Never Let Me Go
– by Kazuo Ishigiro (After reading this post, I immediately went out and bought a copy of the book. If you have read it – DON’T TELL ME ANYTHING. I want no spoilers. I loved Remains of the Day – the only other one of his I have read – and I am really excited for this new one.)
The Boy Detective Fails
– by Joe Meno
can’t wait to hear what you think about Never Let Me Go. It kind of blew my mind. And Passage to India is one of my faves. I remember reading most of that and Howard’s End outside in Palmer Square in Princeton.
Kate – that’s what I’m hearing about Ishiguro’s book – I’m almost scared to read any reviews on Amazon or anything because I don’t want to know anything about it.
Excited! I’m not sure what I’ll start with. I have so much personal stuff going on right now, so much work to do – I might not be able to start reading for a couple of weeks.
I miss you!!
What?! No “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows”?? I know that’s GOTTA be in there. ;-) It is for me!
Yeah, I’ll definitely be reading it. But I see that one as a given – so I’m not putting it as a ‘challenge’. These on my list are all books I’ve either put off reading, or put off finishing – or think I need to re-visit again. I’ll probably be adding to it, actually – because it won’t take me the whole summer to read these 10 books.
Ryszard Kapuscinski’s memoirs are coming out too – i think in June. That’ll be read the second it arrives in my mailbox.
I will do well to get through The Iliad this summer. Tooooo many research papers (okay, quit complaining, Hall, you volunteered).
Then all I’ll say about the Ishiguro is, it deserves a place on your list and less you know the better! Passage to India is pretty great too!
Warning!! Do NOT read the Penguin edition of Bleak House. The end notes ruined the ending for me 11 pages in.
Liz – ha! Thanks for the tip! I will definitely stay away then!
I’m a big Modern Library fan, actually – all of my other Dickens copies are Modern Libraries so I think I’ll stick with that.
It sucks, though, doesn’t it when you get a badly edited or put together version of a book? I will NEVER buy a “Barnes & Noble Classic” after reading Middlemarch where I stopped counting the typos after page 20.
I was furious. What a sloppy edition.
Hm. I could have used slightly less punctuation in my comment. POSSibly.
dearest–ken may want to forego the reading of the iliad, and go for the reading by derek jacoby or ian mclelland [or another one of those over rated brit actors]we listened to it on one of our trips to see siobhan, and remember how thrilled we were in the telling, as if homer told it to us at the heartstone. love, dad
Dad – I’ve never heard either of those! I remember how thrilling it was when I listened to Seamus Heaney’s reading of his translation of Beowulf (starting with the conversational word, “So!”) – and it was like a whole new story to me. You can tell it’s meant to be heard aloud and it was quite exciting to hear!
I’m so happy you’re commenting again. Hope to see you soon.
“Never Let Me Go” – by Kazuo Ishiguro
I finished the first book on my Summer Reading Challenge – Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I read it in a day and a half. I was really chilled by it. Scared. Very sad. And I am GLAD…