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Post Your Summer Reading Lists!

Messianni

Messianni

Commodore
Commodore
I've always found it to be a fun practice, ever since grade school, to create a summer reading list. Of course it's fun to read every day of the year, but this is just yet another excuse to get outside and enjoy a good book.

So who's got theirs? Any recommendations? Here's what I've compiled, though I'm sure some will drop off while I pick up others and indeed, I've already completed a few of these.

Shakespeare:
- Julius Caesar
- Antony and Cleopatra
- The Tempest
- Richard II
- King Lear

Fiction/Prose/Poetry
- "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde
- "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman
- "Galapagos" by Kurt Vonnegut
- "Animal Farm" by George Orwell
- "Pale Fire" by Vladmir Nabokov
- "The Crying of Lot 49" by Thomas Pynchon
- Tales from Ovid
- "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad
- "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner
- "The Stranger" by Albert Camus
- "Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit" by Charles Bukowski

Non-fiction/biography:
- "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama (currently reading)
- "De Profundis" by Oscar Wilde (not a novel, a long letter written to Wilde's lover while in prison)
- "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
- "Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness" by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
- "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel
 
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Wow, impressive list! Way back in grade school, we'd have summer reading lists too, and our reward for completing the list? One free soft-serve ice cream cone from McDonald's! :lol: I thought it was great back then.

I usually commute to work by bike during the summer, but on the off days when I'm on the bus, I'll read my book. I just finished "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. I'm working on Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" and hopefully I'll squeeze in Voltaire's "Candide" and "Too Big to Fail" by Gary Stern and Ron Feldman--gotta throw in one scary non-fiction book in there...
 
winged victory said:
Wow, impressive list! Way back in grade school, we'd have summer reading lists too, and our reward for completing the list? One free soft-serve ice cream cone from McDonald's! :lol: I thought it was great back then.

I usually commute to work by bike during the summer, but on the off days when I'm on the bus, I'll read my book. I just finished "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. I'm working on Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" and hopefully I'll squeeze in Voltaire's "Candide" and "Too Big to Fail" by Gary Stern and Ron Feldman--gotta throw in one scary non-fiction book in there...
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I wouldn't mind ice cream now... :lol:

How did you like Slaughter-House Five? It's one of my favorite Vonnegut novels.
 
Messianni said:
winged victory said:
Wow, impressive list! Way back in grade school, we'd have summer reading lists too, and our reward for completing the list? One free soft-serve ice cream cone from McDonald's! :lol: I thought it was great back then.

I usually commute to work by bike during the summer, but on the off days when I'm on the bus, I'll read my book. I just finished "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. I'm working on Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" and hopefully I'll squeeze in Voltaire's "Candide" and "Too Big to Fail" by Gary Stern and Ron Feldman--gotta throw in one scary non-fiction book in there...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind ice cream now... :lol:

How did you like Slaughter-House Five? It's one of my favorite Vonnegut novels.
Click to expand...

I'm liking it so far; I've only read the first two chapters and I'm not quite sure where the book is going, but I know I'll enjoy the ride.
 
I recently started with the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series and have borrowed the first two books.

Depending on my interest in the books and if they "catch" me i will finish all the available books and then move on.. possibly some Neil Gaiman books (American Gods, Neverwhere).

Of course taking into account that i'm a slow reader nowadays this would fill up my summer. As a kid i sometimes burned through 2-3 books a week.
 
Messianni said:
Garrovick said:
Tolkien Middle Earth books. Again
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The Hobbit and LOTR series or those and the Christopher Tolkien ones?
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Silmarillion now. by Christopher in 1977.

I have all five audio books mentioned in this post in my iPod. and the same in the new e-book version on my net book.

A middle earth book, the exact name escapes me at the moment is next.

Already done Hobbit and LotR.

Even my netbook has a Tolkien desktop theme with icons and sounds for the computer OS.
 
Messianni said:
- "Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit" by Charles Bukowski
- "Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness" by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Click to expand...

I haven't gotten that Bukowski book yet. He's in my top three poets though. And I've never read any of Hunter S Thompson's books, but I'd really like to. One of my exes was a huge fan of his, and I've been meaning to read him ever since.

winged victory said:
I just finished "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.
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I bought this book a few weeks ago, but I've told myself I can't read it til I finish the books I'm reading now. :lol:

FPAlpha said:
I recently started with the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series and have borrowed the first two books.
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I'm on the third book right now! It's taking me forever to finish it because I have so many other distractions.

I don't really have a reading list so much, I just have a hundred or so books I haven't read yet, and I usually just grab whichever one grabs my interest when I finish one. I did recently get the first of the Sandman graphic novels though, and I really want to read that. I've loved every Neil Gaiman book I've read, and I've heard Sandman is pretty much the greatest thing ever.
 
I have a queue next to my bed, but I don't keep a reading list. I keep a books completed list, so I almost have to wait until Labor Day to post my reading list. However, I'm currently reading Daemon by Suarez, Vanguard #4 is next in my queue, followed by The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith. I highly enjoyed his first Demidov book, Child 44, so I'm looking forward to the sequel.

I'm also hoping to read a bit more Sherlock Holmes this summer, and then we'll go from there.

Angry Angel said:
I intend to enjoy the Dune series on the balcony this Summer.
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Oh, don't do that. Just read Dune and stop. There were no other books. Neither Herbert, nor his kid, nor Kevin J. Anderson wrote any further books. Dune is one, self-contained book. Please heed my warning.
 
I have no idea. I'll just pick up what strikes my fancy from all the stuff laying around here. Right now, I'm about three quarters of the way through Agent Of Vega by James Schmitz. I've recently started reading the Pern books, so I'm sure I'll read at least one more before Summer is over. And I'm always reading old Pulp reprints. And Summer is also a good time for Golden Age SF. So who knows...?
 
At the moment I'm working on Into the Wild. After that I plan to start on Roots, which should keep me busy for while. I read so much less than I used to, it's rather sad.
 
I don't really compile a summer reading list, so I'll just list the stack of books on my nightstand that are will be read over the next few months (or so :lol:)...

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

A collection of short stories by Mark Twain

The Trial by Franz Kafka

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Stardust by Neil Gaimon

The Sherlock Holmes canon by Arthur Conan Doyle (I'll be rereading this before the new movie. I'm currently on The Sign of Four)

Labyrinths by Jorge Louis Borges

The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
 
Currently reading Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds.
After that it's Shadowplay by Tad Williams.
I'm also planning on reading a bit of Asimov's work.
 
For the most part, I'll be reading my new 'Teach Yourself Russian' books.

I'll probably reread some of my Political Science Research Methods books to brush up on statstical analysis.

God I sound boring. :(
 
Unfortunately I've been having a really hard time reading for pleasure lately. For some reason reading a book, even one that is captivating my interest, puts me to sleep after about 20 minutes of reading. It really sucks.
 
Currently reading: The Bloody Triangle: German Defeat of Soviet Armor in the Ukraine in 1941

On my Summer reading list:

The 7th Infantry Regiment
The March Up
Patton's Vanguard
He Rode Up Front for Patton
Joker One
 
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