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 :)