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30 May 2006

Summer Reading Challenge: My list

I'll be participating in the Summer Reading Challenge at Amanda's Weekly Zen. Here is my tentative list:

1 FICTION: Saturday, Ian McEwan
2 DRAMA: Master Harold-- and the boys, Athol Fugard
3 FICTION: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,M Spark (Slaves of Golconda)
4 FICTION: The Only Problem, Muriel Spark (Slaves of Golconda)
5 FICTION: Glyph, Percival Everett (Book giveaway: read & pass along)
6 NONFICTION:Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel,Jane Smiley(Lit Crit)
7 FICTION: The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
8 FICTION: The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
9 FICTION: Graceland, Chris Abani (vacation)
10 NONFICTION:Fraternity, Bob Greene (Contemp Amer History)
11 FICTION: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn, (vacation)
12 NONFICTION:The Judgment of Paris, Ross King (Art History )
13 FICTION: March, Geraldine Brooks (vacation)
14 NONFICTION:Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell
15 MEMOIR: A Pound of Paper : Confessions of a Book Addict, John Baxter
16 FICTION: Beowulf (vacation)
17 FICTION: Grendel, John Gardner (vacation)
18 MEMOIR: Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
19 FICTION: Black Swan Green, David Mitchell
20 FICTION: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
21 NONFICTION:Lost Mountain, Erik Reece (ecology)
22 POETRY: Selected Poems, John Donne (vacation)

This list was culled from my TBR tag list on LibraryThing. I didn't realize how long that list was! Some have been on that list for a several months (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and Fraternity, for example). Pillars of the Earth and City of Falling Angels are loosely related to my summer travel destinations and both were recommended by friends. Beowulf & Grendel just scream to be read together. I pulled these, along with the collection of Donne's poems and Fugard's play, from my son's car where they had been tossed in a clean-out-the-locker year-end frenzy. From the looks of them, he may actually have read them. It will be interesting to re-visit Beowulf and Donne after many, many years. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a work my son has been bugging me to read for about a year!

I know this list is much longer than I can complete in 3 months, but I was unable to make further cuts in my TBR pile. Yes, indecisive! This somewhat resembles a chronologically ordered reading list, but I may not stick with this sequence. Those marked "(vacation)" are those likely to get packed for my trip, for no reason other than they are lightweight paperbacks. Depending on timing, vacation may shift the list somewhat. Also, this doesn't account for my reading group -- whether those are added or bump something else off the list, will depend on the work and whether we meet in July/August.

3 comments:

Rebecca H. said...

That is a great list! I'm curious about Grendel -- it's on my TBR list, so I look forward to your thoughts.

Anne Camille said...

I'll be sure to comment on it. I don't anticipate getting to it until July, but check back often in case I read it sooner. I find it difficult to believe that I wasn't assigned to read Beowulf at some point in time, but I have no recollection of reading it. So, it will be interesting to read the original epic and Gardner's modern take on it together. Grendel has been on my TBR for ages, so I was excited when I saw my son had a copy of it -- and I quickly appropriated his copy from the resell pile. The movie Beowulf and Grendel has it's US release June 16th. Can't find any dates on other cities, but DVD release is set for July.

ebbye said...

Graet and full on list! I just joined the challenge and am looking at all the ambitious reading lists around me! Let me know ho they go
:)