Summer Reading

Since I seem to always follow what is popular a little behind the curve, I am just now creating my first "blog". I still don't even use Twitter and I had made a Facebook account only because my roommate freshmen year at college did it for me. However, I thought it could be fun to start writing a blog about the books I'm reading during the perfect season for it, summer.

I could set a goal for myself like Sara Nelson did in her memoir, "So Many Books So Little Time" reading a book a week for a year, but I don't think I could be that ambitious. So, I will start off slow and write about the books I'm reading now without setting a time limit for myself because life sometimes gets in the way of reading.


I am currently just starting the novel, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" that I picked up at the bookstore. It has received so many raves that with a review that states, "A book-lover's delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary" its hard to not want to read it! It also got huge raves with the indiboung.org folks and since they recommend books I have enjoyed in the past I thought I would take them up on this recommendation also. I'll follow up with my reading on how it is going and if it is as good as everyone says.


However, I just finished a novel that was both a challenging and an excellent read at the same time! The novel is entitled, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery. Even though I just finished it I know I will definitely read it again! Re-reading a book in my opinion is something of the highest praise as there is always more new books being published and then of course those classics that are always in the back of your head that you think you should be reading.

I say the novel was challenging only in the sense of Muriel's very expansive vocabulary. The plot and characters themselves were both rich in description and fascinating to read about. The second time I read it I will be having a highlighter and a dictionary by my side to understand everything that this prodigious story has to offer.

Now, since I was an English major in college I will be dissecting my novels from six different approaches: Formalist, Reader-Response, Historical, Feminist, Ethnicity and Psychoanalytical.

As I progress with the blog I will have a running list of Books I'm Reading, Books I Want to Read, and Books I Have Read.

So, happy summer reading to all!