Summer Reading!

Well, it’s almost officially summertime. Hooray! Summer is my favorite season. I love love love warm weather and in Chicago it’s kind of hit or miss whether or not we actually GET a summer or not. Last year: yes. The year before: nope. So far this June has been rather annoying. We had a couple days of killer heat (and I mean killer! it was in the 90s with blazing sun. that’s even too hot for me) and then it sunk back down to the 50s and 60s and rain rain rain. Yuck! It seems like it’s slinking back up to the 70s and 80s soon though but I still see a bunch of rain in the forecast. Boo.

Anyway…with summer for a lot of people comes some fun reading. Time to catch up on some books you’ve been meaning to get to or participate in some summer challenges or just sit back with some beachy-type reads.

For me it’s the first two. As you all know, my TBR pile floweth over. One book I really really want to get to this summer (okay, it’s really a play, not a book, but whatever) is King Lear by Shakespeare. I’m always ashamed when I claim to be a huge Shakespeare fan but yet I have to admit I’ve never read that one. So this summer, come hell or high water, I’m going to get to it!

Then I’m also participating in a fun summer reading challenge with a group I’m in through Shelfari. It’s not the group I run, Who Doesn’t Love a Classic, it’s another one where I’m just a lowly member, but that’s okay ;)

It’s the Bibliophile Reading Group and the challenge is like this:

1. Read 3 books that are Book-of-the-Month’s from June-August (this group has about 3-4 books each month that they read so there will be a bunch to choose from).

2. Read a book that has a summer theme on the title (For example, The Beach by Alex Garland)

3. Read a book that has at least 400 pages.

4. Read a book that starts with the letter of your first name or last name (this would be “L” for me).

5. Read a book that has at least one of the summer colors on the cover: red, yellow, and orange.

And the trick is you can only use one book per number. So even if I read a book that would work for say #2,3 and 4, I would have to choose which number to use it on. So you have to read seven books total. And there are mini-challenges posted along the way too.

I think I’ve figured out most of the books I’m going to be reading to fit in with the numbers, aside from the Book-of-the-Months that is. For #2 I’m going to either read Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island or Aldous Huxley’s Island (get it?). I’ve already done #3 because I just recently finished The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk which was well over 400 pages. And for #5 I’m going to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon because the cover is entirely reddish-orange and I just bought it (oh, and I’ve heard great things).

The only one I don’t know about is #4, the “L” book. Maybe Liza of Lambeth by Maugham? Not sure yet. Any good suggestions?

What are your summer reading plans? Any good challenges? Taking it easy? What’s going on with you all :)

Challenge Me Will Ya!

I seriously really truly was planning on NOT signing up for any reading challenges this year. But alas! The challenges have won! I have found two that have somehow (bribery?) convinced me to participate, and (bonus!) they kind of even overlap with one another.

The first is via blogger Bethany over at Subtle Melodrama. It’s called the Victorian Literature Challenge and basically it involves reading books that were published any time during Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901).

They don’t necessarily have to be “Victorian” according to the challenge rules so that gives you even more book options to choose from. There are four different levels to join for the challenge and I’ve chosen to aim for Hard Times (meaning I’ll read between 10-14 books). It’s actually an underestimate for me, but I like to aim as low as possible so as to never be disappointed! I’ve already read three so far this year (yay me!):

(click on the titles to see my full reviews)

• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
 

The second challenge is by way of blogger Marisa over at Armchair Archives called the Oscar Wilde Reading Challenge (can you already see how they’re going to overlap? sneaky of me isn’t it?). And I’m sure all my smart followers can guess what’s involved in this challenge: reading Oscar Wilde’s works.

I’ve opted to be Willfully Wilde, which means to read any 4 of his works. And as pointed out above, I’ve already read his one and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

I’ll keep you all updated on my progress as time goes on. And, of course, I’ll post reviews here of each book I read.