Summer Reading Lists Thread

[cuppajoe_9]

The term is almost up, at least for us college boys and girls, and I have decided that planning which books to read now that I will actually have time to do so recreationally is more fun than studying for my exams. What I actually get through depends heavily on time available, and whether or not I land a job which allows me to read while working and not get fired. My list so far:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (this, obviously, is the big project)
Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler, which a friend has offerend to lend to me
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Dubliners by James Joyce

Any comments or suggestions are welcome, and I would love to hear the summer literary plans of the other Lit-Netters.

[optimisticnad]

I've read the first one and the las one. You should be able to read dubliners fairly quickly. I might give the other two you have in the list a try.

I've always wanted to read War and Peace so thats on my list. I have a long long long long long long long long long long long (you get the idea right?) list, i dont narrow it down to a summer reading, i just read off there.

but this a good idea, i would love to know what people plan to read in the summer.

i know i will read at least one trashy romance novel!

[kandaurov]

Nice idea for a thread!

Don't have a throughoutly-planned list... but here are some of the books I'm looking forward to reading:

Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky (O, how I long!)
Dubliners, by Joyce
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by anonymous
Beowulf, by anonymous (not the same though heh)
The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald

...and some portuguese authors as well

As for your list: I selected Dubliners as well, I have great expectations concerning these stories.
You and other forum peers have sparked my interest in Anna Karenina... I may buy it, then! :)
As for the rest, I'm afraid that I have no formed opinion upon, though I have heard of Faulkner...

[THX-1138]

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Dubliners by James Joyce


:banana:
i just bought A Summer of Faulkner

http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0307275329.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_AA240_.jpg

and am planning to read beside Faulkner's ,Dubliners and Angela's ashes.

[cuppajoe_9]

This just in: I stopped in a used book store (seems I can't leave my house without doing that these days) and picked up A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, so those will have to go on the list, I suppose. I'm not going to have time for much else.

[cuppajoe_9]

Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky (O, how I long!)
Dubliners, by Joyce
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by anonymous
Beowulf, by anonymous (not the same though heh)
The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald

I've read all of those except Dubliners. All are fairly freakin' amazing. Enjoy.

[kandaurov]

Heheee, very well read, aren't we? :D

[cuppajoe_9]

We are an English major. ;)

[kandaurov]

Oh so? Fantastic! I shall seek your advice in the future, then, if you don't mind :)

[Dante Wodehouse]

Nice idea for a thread!

Don't have a throughoutly-planned list... but here are some of the books I'm looking forward to reading:

Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky (O, how I long!)
Dubliners, by Joyce
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by anonymous
Beowulf, by anonymous (not the same though heh)
The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald


Make sure that the Beowulf is translated by Seamus Heaney. I tried another version and it made very little sense. Hrothgar call; Danes disarm says he monster untersea beast hide worthy; Geatish prince worthy of slay of untersea beast, I mean to say...

[kandaurov]

Haha, thanks for the tip, Dante. Can't remember the man's name, but will check! But it's a Penguin edition, so hopefully it's not too bad

[papayahed]

I'm going to read some chick lit, i'm not sure what though. A friend recommended Jennifer Weiner but we'll see. Perhaps I'll post a Recommendations please" thread.

[grace86]

"The Great Gatsby" and "Crime and PUnishment" are both really good ideas for summer reads.

Yes...I've been thinking about my own list. There are two rather large ones I've been thinking on, but I am not sure which one I want to make my project.

And Harry Potter 7 is coming out...so I might have to reread number 6...that is purely recreational.

Sooo...my list:

1.) The Count of Monte Cristo or Don Quixote (figure out the large ones yet?)
2.) Harry Potter 7
3.) Dante Club
4.) Some introduction to precalculus book for my entrance exam for uni.

Hmm not sure I like my list completely. Stand by for possible revisions.

[grace86]

"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" sounds like an idea though too....grrr.

[Orual]

I have a very long list of possibilities for my summer reading:

Dr. Zhivago - Pasternak
War and Peace - Tolstoy
The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
Eugene Onegin - Pushkin
Dead Souls - Gogol
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Solzhenitsyn
Atlas Shrugged - Rand
The Idiot - Dostoyevsky
Les Miserables - Hugo
Madame Bovary - Flaubert
1984 - Orwell
Vanity Fair - Thackeray
Brave New World - Huxley
The Giver - Lowry
Heart of Darkness - Conrad
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Angelou
The Jungle - Sinclair

And I'll probably read the seventh Harry Potter book. But I'd like to read around five of the above (they're books I've been meaning to read but know very little about). If anyone has recommendations, I'd be glad to hear them.

[Il Penseroso]

Mrs. Dalloway or To a Lighthouse (suggestions?)- Virginia Woolf

Light in August - William Faulkner

Something (suggestions?) by Ernest Hemmingway

Lots out of my lit. textbooks from school (the stuff we don't have time for during the semester)

Some translated French poets

And whatever else piques my interest along the way.

[Stieg]

The works of premiere Briton horror author Bernard Taylor, also Conrad Williams, Joe Hill, Edogawa Rampo, Mike Sharlow, Kim Paffenroth, William Hjortsberg, Kelly Link, Scott Sigler.

More literary classics.

The debuts of Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, and Patrick Rothfuss have created a giant stir in fantasy, so I'd like to give them a try especially Rothfuss.

[bazarov]

"The Great Gatsby" and "Crime and PUnishment" are both really good ideas for summer reads.

Yes...I've been thinking about my own list. There are two rather large ones I've been thinking on, but I am not sure which one I want to make my project.

And Harry Potter 7 is coming out...so I might have to reread number 6...that is purely recreational.

Sooo...my list:

1.) The Count of Monte Cristo or Don Quixote (figure out the large ones yet?)
2.) Harry Potter 7
3.) Dante Club
4.) Some introduction to precalculus book for my entrance exam for uni.

Hmm not sure I like my list completely. Stand by for possible revisions.

Don definitely.

[bazarov]

I have a very long list of possibilities for my summer reading:

Dr. Zhivago - Pasternak
War and Peace - Tolstoy
The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
Eugene Onegin - Pushkin
Dead Souls - Gogol
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Solzhenitsyn
Atlas Shrugged - Rand
The Idiot - Dostoyevsky
Les Miserables - Hugo
Madame Bovary - Flaubert
1984 - Orwell
Vanity Fair - Thackeray
Brave New World - Huxley
The Giver - Lowry
Heart of Darkness - Conrad
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Angelou
The Jungle - Sinclair



Les Miserables is in my list definitely.

[THX-1138]

[QUOTE]Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by anonymous
Beowulf, by anonymous (not the same though heh)

the Author of Sir Gawain is known as the Gawain poet ,and there is a book by JRR Tolkien on the poem it might be helpful

http://images.bestwebbuys.com/muze/bookmed/36/0001053736.jpg

and about Beowulf there is also a book by JRR Tolkien by the name of (Beowulf the monsters and the critics) which this poem that inspired him to write Lord of the rings

http://i.f.alexander.users.btopenworld.com/favourites/tolkien_monsters.jpg

[cuppajoe_9]

Oh so? Fantastic! I shall seek your advice in the future, then, if you don't mindI would be delighted. I'm sure I'm not the only English major around here, and I'm sure there are a few who are a bit further into their degrees than I am (I'm just finishing the first year), so keep an eye out. :)


Mrs. Dalloway or To a Lighthouse (suggestions?)- Virginia Woolf
...
Something (suggestions?) by Ernest HemmingwayI just bought To the Lighthouse yesterday. I'm halfway through and it's already my new favorite book (full disclosure: I haven't read Dalloway). As for Hemm: The Old Man and the Sea is always a good one. For Whom the Bell Tolls is perhaps a bit more 'adventury', if that's what you're in the mood for, but the female characters – not to put too fine a point on it – suck. It's still a great novel, though. I dig the Cezanne avatar, by the way.

Edit: Just finished To the Lighthouse. You need to read this book.

[liesl]

i, like yourself, am doing an english literature degree..just finishing my second year.

i would like to find time to read;
War of the Worlds - Wells,
In Cold Blood - Capote,
We - Zamyatin,
Les Miserables - Hugo,
A Clergyman's Daughter - Orwell

there's probably a lot more that i would like to read but unfortunately i will need to re-read all my dystopian texts for my dissertation and i will be expected to leap whole heartedly into my research *sigh* ...and i may need to search for a job :(

btw, we studied To the Lighthouse in the first year..i didn't enjoy it. Can't explain why exactly, some books just don't touch me.

[whatsername]

:banana:
and am planning to read beside Faulkner's ,Dubliners and Angela's ashes.

Angela's Ashes...excellent choice:thumbs_up , I finished it in 5 days.

Here is my list(Some books I have never read before and some I'm going to re-read)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
Lord of the flies
Lord of the rings
Pygmalion
Jane Eyre
Sense and Sensiblity
Black Beauty
The Jungle book
Eragon
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Great Gatsby
The Age of Innocence
The Importance of Being Earnest
Wuthering Heights

[bazarov]

Les Miserables; definitely, no way to miss it.It's hard to say for the rest, there are 3 months until that so who knows what will read until...I should give a chance to Jane Austen probably, but I really don't know for others. Those books mentioned in this topic I have mostly read; nothing so long to wait until summer:D

[Pensive]

Angela's Ashes...excellent choice:thumbs_up , I finished it in 5 days.

Here is my list(Some books I have never read before and some I'm going to re-read)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
Lord of the flies
Lord of the rings
Pygmalion
Jane Eyre
Sense and Sensiblity
Black Beauty
The Jungle book
Eragon
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Great Gatsby
The Age of Innocence
The Importance of Being Earnest
Wuthering Heights

Some really good books you have mentioned over here. I hope you have fun reading them! :)

[whatsername]

Some really good books you have mentioned over here. I hope you have fun reading them! :)

Thanks :)

[Nightshade]

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by anonymous


since I live supposedly in the area where the poem is set, we have a woman who swears blind that the mere that is in the poem is the one that runs quite near my house so actualy thats on my list this year too, the Brian stone translation.

Hopefully Ill also read the gormenghast and finish meditation by Marcus aurelious. and middlemarch is on my list too. Harry potter 6 if I can work up the enthusiasm to try and catch up with all the people who come into the library, Minaret by Leila Abdulela... a jodie picolt, I know why the caged bird sings catcher in the rye sophies world, everything is illuminated.
another virgina wollf and maybe Birdsong.

And I had a long list but Ive missplaced it I know I have about 9 books on order from the library (2 of which are for other people but Ill probably read them anyway)

[grace86]

Thanks Bazarov, Don Quixote sounds like a plan.

[bazarov]

Thanks Bazarov, Don Quixote sounds like a plan.
You can't miss...

[Schokokeks]

and middlemarch is on my list too.
Have fun with that one :rolleyes:. I had to read that one, and it took me foreeeeeever, although usually I'm not averse to Victorian writing, but Middlemarch... But I'll make you lots of cookies for motivation in case you'll agree with me after the first 100 pages :D.

My summer reading plan is not fully elaborated yet, but I would like to get started with Virginia Woolf's writings... Anybody has any suggestion which one of hers to pick first ?

[cuppajoe_9]

Well, I think I've made it fairly clear that I loved To the Lighthouse, and it was the only Woolf I've read aside from A Room of One's Own. Orlando is supposed to be one of her more readable works, however.

Man did I ever dislike Middlemarch.

[manolia]

My summer reading plan is not fully elaborated yet, but I would like to get started with Virginia Woolf's writings... Anybody has any suggestion which one of hers to pick first ?

Hi!
I have read Mrs Dalloway and i liked it so much. I am a very slow reader but this is one of the books that took me only a few days to read. I strongly recommend it:) I have also baught "Orlando", "The waves" and "Jacob's room" but i haven't read them yet so i can't say anything about them. From what i have heard "To the lighthouse" is probably her best book, but this is subjective. Enjoy! I am sure that whichever you pick you are going to be satisfied with your choice :)

[Virgil]

Oh I love To The Lighthouse too. One of my all time favorite novels. I have not read Orlando so no opinion. Mrs. Dalloway to me is over rated, but lots love the novel. But perhaps a easy first Woolf novel. The Years is an under rated novel that was quite enjoyable and which I would recommend.

This thread has caught on like wild fire. ;) My first reaction was that it is way too early to be discussing summer reads. But I guess it's never too early. ;)

[werwolfblutlust]

my reading list consists of many a book

1. Cry the Beloved Country-Alan Paton
2.Harry Potter and the deathly hallows
3. Gendel John Gardner
and many more school assigned books

[Schokokeks]

Thank you all for your views :nod:. I think I'll then go with To the Lighthouse.


My first reaction was that it is way too early to be discussing summer reads. But I guess it's never too early. ;)
Hehe, it's about 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer over here at my place than in lousy Manhattan :D. So much for the felt summer :p.

[Nightshade]

Have fun with that one :rolleyes:. I had to read that one, and it took me foreeeeeever, although usually I'm not averse to Victorian writing, but Middlemarch... But I'll make you lots of cookies for motivation in case you'll agree with me after the first 100 pages :D.




Man did I ever dislike Middlemarch.

Oh great job with the motiating you two, now Ill so look forward tp starting it *glare*
ahh well this is my second attempt actually. but Ive bought it ( for 50 p) and now I intend to get through it.


Cookie if you choose one other than Dalloway as Ive already read it PM me a couple of weeks before and Ill read it with you.


Ive just rembered Im also redoing some of the DuMariers and I will read rebbeca this time ( always put off that one for some reason). Might take another stab at Balazac while Im torturing myself anyway. :p :rolleyes:

[Schokokeks]

Oh great job with the motiating you two, now Ill so look forward tp starting it *glare*
Defy us, then ! ;)


Cookie if you choose one other than Dalloway as Ive already read it PM me a couple of weeks before and Ill read it with you.Will do ! :nod:

[papayahed]

Oh I love To The Lighthouse too. One of my all time favorite novels. I have not read Orlando so no opinion. Mrs. Dalloway to me is over rated, but lots love the novel. But perhaps a easy first Woolf novel. The Years is an under rated novel that was quite enjoyable and which I would recommend.




I found Orlando to be a big stinking pile of poo. It seemed to be very pretentious and stuffy. Of course that is my own opinion; I know a lot of people found it to be really god.

[Nightshade]

big stinking pile of poo

I think the film was too fell asleep less than halfway through and I never sleep if the TV is on.

[cuppajoe_9]

Aww, be nice, papaya. She wrote it for her girlfriend.


I know a lot of people found it to be really god.Now that must be a weird religion :goof: .

[Idril]

Man did I ever dislike Middlemarch.

Oh, I did too. Like Cookie, I normally really like Victorian lit but Middlemarch was excrutiating.

[Nightshade]

Stop stop !! or Ill never get it read.!:bawling:

[papayahed]

Aww, be nice, papaya. She wrote it for her girlfriend.



Was she trying to get rid of the girlfriend?:lol:

[aeroport]

I'm trying not to be TOO ambitious this time, but the list is beginning to form itself. First will be some pretty intense reading of Joyce and Beckett for a month-long course in May, but then...

1) Moby-Dick - Melville
2) The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
3) The Sacred Fount - Henry James

Possibly...
4) A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
I'm thinking I also need to actually start READING the books I'm getting from my Library of America subscription, so I might tear into the Edith Wharton novels...

[cuppajoe_9]

Two Cities won't take you too terribly long. As to the rest: best of luck.

[Adolescent09]

The Brother's Karamazov only took me a week to read but I ditched at least 14 hours of Biology I was supposed to do over the same time period :(. I'm reading the book over again now but here are a few suggestions from me. (I'm not majoring in English; English is not even my favorite subject, so my suggestions might not be the greatest. Also I tend to read VERY long books so you might need more than one summer to read 'em all.)

Here are a very few books which most likely you've already read.. but I'll post 'em anyway: (Hope it helps a little)

Epic and middle-length reads:
The Count of Monte Cristo and The Thre Musketeers---Dumas (You should read both books at one shot to see how beautifully Dumas is able to switch his styles yet keep the reader interested throughout. That is actually very auspicious. I'll acknowledge that there has been many an occasion when I have put down a short 350-500 page book because I thought the author dragged the descriptions too long and left the reader hanging. Dumas is very good at not falling into the "lethargic trap" and keeps you reading intensely interested until the very last page.)

Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre---Emily Bronte and Charlotte Bronte respectively.....(A fairly short, slightly pretentious read of dark conflicting moods between protagonists Heathcliffe and Catherine. It was brazen of her to have produced such a work at her time since literature was generally light and chearful. Authors, Emily and Charlotte and even their baby sister are three most profound apostates I've ever come across)

Democracy in America----Alexis De Tocqueville (I read this when I was thirteen. And yes; finished it. Talk about an epic perception of America's governmental policies! This book delves into all the routes of societal America which differs from France and European countries. I would highly suggest, if you have the time, to pick this up. I definately have to give it a look over...or two.)

Very short reads:
The Old Man and the Sea---C'mon, who doesn't love Hemmingway? Jeez, even people who despise reading love Hemmingway for his concise dialogue, explicit plot and simplistic form of writing. The entire book is written at the level of a seventh grader but packed with the profound concepts of a genius mathmetician.

The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, Of Mice and Men and East of Eden---all of these books can be read in one shot, because they are very short and explicit. I love John Steinbeck for his Hemmingway-explicit style of writing and the way he can convey strong emotions through simple, yet profoundly effective matters mainly the Depression.

[cuppajoe_9]

I'm not majoring in English; English is not even my favorite subject, so my suggestions might not be the greatest.Don't worry about it. We don't cotton to no improper appeals to authority here abouts.

I'm definitely behind you on Old Man and The Grapes of Wrath. You don't win Nobel Prizes for Literature for nothing, I suppose. I might get into the Dumas if I have time.

[aeroport]

East of Eden in one read? Not so sure... I do need to knock out some of the shorter Steinbeck, though.

As for Dumas, I think I had some remote idea that I would try to wait until I was reasonably proficient in French (within a year if I start actually studying, rather than letting the class pass by...), and then trying my hand at the original. From what I hear, his is a bit more readable than, say, Flaubert's.

If I want another big read, and have time after Melville and Dostoevsky, I might decide to do Trollope's The Way We Live Now, and I would really like to do When She Was Good by Philip Roth. We'll see...

[malwethien]

My Summer (or 2007) lineup includes:

1. My Name is Red (Orhan Pamuk) - currently reading it along with Jane Eyre
2. Life, the Universe and Everything (Douglas Adams)
3. So Long and Thanks for all the Fish (Douglas Adams)
4. Mostly Harmless (Douglas Adams)
5. A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
6. Snow (Orhan Pamuk)
7. American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

Just to name a few....there is actually more.... ;)

[Idril]

Those are some good books, Malwethien. The Adams books are all excellent, although I found Mostly Harmless to be a little disappointing, Confederacy of Dunces is fabulous and American Gods is also a good read, you should have a fun summer with those books. :thumbs_up

I generally don't make lists, I have 6 or 7 books on my "to read" pile, that should get me to summer but past that, the only plans I have for the summer are to start Trollope's Barchester series and to reread The Posessed because I remember loving that book but whenever Baz mentions someone from there, I have no idea who he's talking about so I think it's time to refresh my memory. :blush: :rolleyes:

[liesl]

I'm trying not to be TOO ambitious this time, but the list is beginning to form itself. First will be some pretty intense reading of Joyce and Beckett for a month-long course in May, but then...

1) Moby-Dick - Melville


hmmm, i'm deciding that after i write my 2000 word essay on this novel if i ever read it again it will be too soon. i think i'll be proud i've read it twice and stick to watching gregory peck's version :D

but good luck! two cities is one of my favourite dickens books, a great read!

[Aiculík]

1. Everyman by Philip Roth:
2. Candles Are Burning Out by Sándor Márai (translation of Slovak title, I think it wasn’t translated into English yet)
3. Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows by Joanne K. Rowling:
4. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
5. Kid in Milk by Yuri Polyakov (I think this also wasn’t translated into English yet)
6. Slow Man by John Maxwell Coetzee
7. The House of Scorta by Laurent Gaudé
8. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
9. Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov

[bazarov]

and to reread The Posessed because I remember loving that book but whenever Baz mentions someone from there, I have no idea who he's talking about so I think it's time to refresh my memory. :blush: :rolleyes:
:lol: :lol: :lol: I knowhow you feel! I remember that Dead Souls were excellent novel but except Chicikov, main story and that old silly lady I don't remember too much. That's why I'm rereading it...

[jenoir]

I'm going to be doing some prep reading for my dissertation. Ideally, I'm hoping to read:

Tanizaki Junichiro - Naomi; The Makioka Sisters
Kawabata Yasunari - Snow Country; The Old Capital; House of The Sleeping Beauties
Mishima Yukio - Spring Snow; The Temple of the Golden Pavilion; The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea
Oe Kenzaburo - A Personal Matter; Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness
Murakami Haruki - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

... but we'll see how that goes. Perhaps thrown in some Kobo Abe or Akira Yoshimura thrown in there too, if I make good time on the rest of those.

[Idril]

I just did some shopping at amazon and now I finally have my summer reading list fixed, at least through July, I think, some of these books are pretty short so it may not take that long.

Seeds of Tomorrow ~ Mikhail Sholokhov
Harvest on the Don ~ Mikhail Sholokhov
The Warden ~ Anthony Trollope
Farewell Waltz ~ Milan Kundera
Babylon ~ Viktor Pelevin
Spring Torrents ~ Ivan Turgenev
Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family ~ Thomas Mann
...and of course, Possessed by Dostoevsky

[Schokokeks]

Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family ~ Thomas Mann
Err, voluntarily ? :D
Honestly, you better consider giving Middlemarch another try, rather than reading that one :rolleyes:. I really love German literature, and Thomas Mann is a fine author, but I found Buddenbrooks fantastically and mind-numbingly boring. I mean, if you've been wanting to read it for ages and can't wait to get started because it was recommended to you by someone whom you really really really trust, then go ahead, I certainly don't mean to spoil your reading pleasure :). I just felt it was my duty as a fellow Middlemarch-disliker to warn you against this :D.
His Death in Venice and even more his The Magic Mountain are way better in my opinion. But still, if you pick up Buddenbrooks, tell me how you liked it once you're done :nod:. Maybe I've missed the essential things.

[Idril]

Err, voluntarily ? :D
Honestly, you better consider giving Middlemarch another try, rather than reading that one :rolleyes:. I really love German literature, and Thomas Mann is a fine author, but I found Buddenbrooks fantastically and mind-numbingly boring.

Oh, really?! I've heard so many good things about that book and I was really excited about it but now I'm not so sure. :p I really don't think I could stand another Middlemarch, one of them was torture enough. Since it's already coming, I'll give it a try but I won't stubbornly make myself finish it if it doesn't speak to me. ;)

[Schokokeks]

Oh, really?! I've heard so many good things about that book and I was really excited about it but now I'm not so sure. :p
Yes, I also heard rumours that there are actually people who like it :p. But maybe the translators did a more than fabulous job and created something entirely different in English ... :D.

Since it's already coming, I'll give it a try but I won't stubbornly make myself finish it if it doesn't speak to me. ;)
That's the attitude for a healthy reading ;). Let me know, then :nod:.

[Idril]

Yes, I also heard rumours that there are actually people who like it :p.

Well, there are also people who loved Middlemarch so anything is possible. ;) :lol:


That's the attitude for a healthy reading ;). Let me know, then :nod:.

It is healthy but I'm not always the picture of health. :p I hate not finishing books, even if I don't like them because sometimes they get better, that thought is always in the back of my head but if I find myself horribly bored, I'll try really hard to take your word for it that it won't get any better. :D And I will let you know how it goes. :thumbs_up

[tudwell]

I'm building up quite a large list for the summer, although with community service for the IB program and probably getting a job, I won't have too much time to read and will most likely not read everything. But here it is, anyway:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (I'm currently about 300 pages in and it's pretty good)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (just started)
Mason & Dixon, Vineland, and maybe Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (and a couple other Dostoevsky novels)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

I have plenty more on my list, but those above will definitely fill my summer, especially considering that most of them are upwards of 500 pages. I'll be surprised if I read even half of them.

[aeroport]

I'm building up quite a large list for the summer, although with community service for the IB program and probably getting a job, I won't have too much time to read and will most likely not read everything. But here it is, anyway:


The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (and a couple other Dostoevsky novels)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce


I'm with you here. I just finished Part I of Bros K, and I must say the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation reads very fast.
Portrait can be read in a day or two (I learned this in my Joyce/Beckett seminar :( ), but I would scarcely reccomend such haste...
I do not think the entirety of Ulysses, however, can be read in less than six months or so. Good luck with that.
And, um, have fun with Pynchon...

[IrishBlues]

Great Expectations - Dickens
Iliad - Homer
Ulysses - Joyce
As I Lay Dying - Faulkner

[Arthur Sermon]

I only have very limited time off this summer but I'll at least read:

V - Pynchon
The Black Book - Pamuk
Germinal - Zola

Furthermore, I'll bloody finish Ulysses even if it kills me.

[Scharphedin2]

Well, I just ordered Oscar Wilde's Short Stories today in order to participate in the book club.

Aside from that, I always keep a pile of books on my night stand. I hope to read most of them by summer's end:

Gabriel García Márquez - Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49
Ovid - The Art Of Love
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
Marquis De Sade - Betrayal
Ivan Turgenev - Fathers and Sons
Junichiro Tanizaki - A Cat, a Man, and Two Women
Hermann Hesse - Klingsor's Last Summer
Milan Kundera - The Art of the Novel
William Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage
Wallace Stegner - Crossing to Safety
Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
Ivan Morris - The Nobility of Failure
David Caute - Joseph Losey: A Revenge on Life

[Mark F.]

A few books I bought and I'm hoping to read this Summer :

"The Bandini Quartet" by John Fante
"No Country For Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy
"Moby Dick" by Herman Melville, I started reading this last Summer, never got round to finishing it and I'll hopefully give it another shot

I also plan on reading :

"Brothers Karamzov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky now that I've read "Crime & Punishment", "The Demons", "The Idiot" and "Notes From the Underground"
"Absolom Absolom" and/or "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner because I read "Light in August" a year ago and loved it.

[Annamariah]

I have at least 25 books in my bookshelf that are just waiting to be read, but I doubt I'll manage to read them all during this summer. Probably I'll just end up reading 30 books from library or read my old favourites all over again instead of those that I've never had time to read yet...:blush:

[Scheherazade]

Those who are interested can always join our Book Club's Summer Reading! :)

Have a look at the options; one of them might be something which is already on your list:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25340

[tudwell]

I just finished Part I of Bros K, and I must say the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation reads very fast.

I bought the Constance Garnett translation, though now I hear it's not that great.

And it appears my entire summer reading list has changed. Infinite Jest is taking much longer than expected. I normally read several novels at once, but the rest of my list is just too demanding to be read concurrently with IJ. I think I'll dabble in some short stories while I try to finish Infinite Jest. It'll probably take all summer.

[Penelope16]

For starters, I came up with this short list, that I would like to expand.

"The Sorrows of Young Werther" Goethe
"The Kite Runner" Khaled Hosseini
"Utopia" Sir Thomas More
"Kafka on the Shore" Murakami
"The Varieties of Religious Experience" William James
"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" James Joyce
"Letters to a Spiritual Seeker" Thoreau
"The First and Last Freedom" Krishnamurti

I would like to focus on religious experiences and variations. Any suggestions?

[Stieg]

Small press indie writers I definitely will be reading during summer:

Mike Sharlow: Teenage Monsters (will be expanding the book and retitling it, Cemetery Dance in Holy Ghost Park) and short collection The River of Lost Limbs.

Scott Sigler: One of the blazing hottest names in indie writing and podcasting and an Amazon top seller, well-researched action technological horror thrillers in the vein of Crichton meets early Carpenter or Marshall?! EarthCore and Ancestor, I don't think I have encountered a negative review. Dan Brown of the podcasting / small press world? No, I think Sigler is more genuine. *shrugs* Hot! Hot! Hot!

Kelly Link: One of the most acclaimed active short story authors today with two collections in print, Stranger Things Happen and Magic for Beginners.

Ronald Damien Malfi: Another author making big impressions, The Fall of Never, The Nature of Monsters, and Via Dolorosa.

[Brigitte]

Those who are interested can always join our Book Club's Summer Reading! :)

Have a look at the options; one of them might be something which is already on your list:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25340

Good advertising!! ;) I'm forming my list based on the book club's picks because I want to be able to discuss it with some people. :]

[Mortis Anarchy]

Dry-Augusten Burroughs
Dubliners-James Joyce
Chew on This-this-Eric Schlasser and Charles Wilson
Goodbye Lemon-Adam Davies
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams-Sylvia Plath
Jude the Obscure-Thomas Hardy
Junky: The Definitive Text of Junk-William S. Burroughs
No Country for Old Men-McCarthy
Notes from the Underground-Fyodor Dostoevsky
Obasan-Joy Kogawa
On the Road-Jack Kerouac
One Hundred Years of Solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez


I think thats it...but then again, my lists are always changing.:)

[Scheherazade]

Good advertising!! ;) I'm forming my list based on the book club's picks because I want to be able to discuss it with some people. :]A gal's gotta do what she's gotta do! ;)

The last three days in our Book Club's summer reading poll. You can still vote and discuss the book of your choice with other members here. (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?p=399337#post399337)

The Book Club is also reading One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey during the Independence Day week: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25954

[corticalaxon]

Souls of Black Folk, Huck Finn, If I Die in a Combat Zone for AP English Lit.
Moral Politics, The Death of Right and Wrong for AP US Gov't.

Non-required: have The Last Templar and The Art of War (Sun Tzu) waiting on my shelf for me, want to read numerous books for various genres (from Catch-22 to The Elegant Universe) before summer finishes...there's so much interesting stuff one finds in the library/bookstore!

[higley]

Books to finish:
1776
Team of Rivals: the political genius of Abraham Lincoln
Bros Karamazov
Flags of Our Fathers
Count of Monte Cristo
Grendel
Lolita

To read:
Harry Potter
Gods and Generals
In the Company of Heroes
...and I forget what else.

[aeroport]

Revised summer reading list:
finish The Brothers Karamazov (300 or so pages to go)
A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
Hard Times - Dickens
The Awkward Age - James
The Ambassadors - James
Portnoy's Complaint - Roth

[Hyacinth42]

My list:

The Awakening
The Things They Carried
A Doll's House
The Stranger

Are any of them good? I've read about half of The Stranger and I hope that the other books wont be anywhere near as bad as it is...

[grace86]

My summer reading list has gone under some revisions as well. I included two novels I did not think I was going to read.

The Ivory Child - Haggard (Already finished)
Women in Love - Lawrence (Should be finished this week)
Don Quixote - Cervantes (First part almost finished)
Harry Potter - Rowling
Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas (Planned for August)

I still have maybe some time in August and September to read more. I still might fit Wuthering Heights or something in there.

[Brigitte]

Books to finish:
1776
Team of Rivals: the political genius of Abraham Lincoln
Bros Karamazov
Flags of Our Fathers
Count of Monte Cristo
Grendel
Lolita

To read:
Harry Potter
Gods and Generals
In the Company of Heroes
...and I forget what else.

Ooohhh... Lolita is probably my favorite novel, or "up-there" on the list. Ahh... it's just amazing. Hehe, and I'm uber excited for the Harry Potter book<3.

[Mortis Anarchy]

Ooohhh... Lolita is probably my favorite novel, or "up-there" on the list. Ahh... it's just amazing. Hehe, and I'm uber excited for the Harry Potter book<3.

ME TOO!!! It stinks though, two days before it comes out, I'll be on a plane to Mexico...grrrr...thats probably for the best because I won't be much for conversation if I'm constantly reading!:D

[Scheherazade]

The Book Club is reading To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf this summer.

You can join us here. (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26024)

[Stieg]

My list:
The Things They Carried


One of the best fictional works on the Vietnam war revealing personal stories of the common grunt both in the war and here at home. Tim O'Brien is capable of capturing incredible poignant moments. Engrossing. Highly recommended!