The Guilt-Free Read
One of the first items of my “I’m-finally-on-summer-vacation” list is to trot down to the local library and leisurely select a few novels to enjoy without guilt. During the year I am either guilty of sneaking my reading in between grading essays or I feel guilt because I am not reading. With no papers in sight for the next couple of months I shall enjoy reading at all hours of the day guilt free.
I tend to mix up my reading, and although I don’t like to make lists, here are a few goals I plan on to accomplish while lounging in the hammock this summer:
1. Room with a View (a reread, the first time I read it too fast determining if I would teach it for AP–the verdict? A resounding “Yes!” The subtle humor and digs at Brits and their habits are delightful–the film caught the spirit well, also.)
2. A really good mystery series–I haven’t found one since I finished my Inspector Evans series by Rhys Bowens. I’m picky though–no bedding, no swearing, no gratuitous violence–limiting, isn’t it? Take it up as a challenge 🙂
3. Classics yet to read: The Sound and the Fury; Middlemarch; Faust (really, I never have); some Dickens, more Shakespeare, and perhaps a Hemingway, and of course a revisit with Austen.
4. Look up current YA–I discovered Hunger Games before the masses did, and hope to find a new trend-setter.
5. Kid Lit: what’s going on in picture books these days, and it never hurts to look up old friends for an afternoon of revisiting.
I’m open to suggestions. Got a good read to recommend? My schedule is wide open until end of August.
image from guardian.co.uk
Billy Collins captures the guilt-free read so very well in his poem “Reading in a Hammock”. An excerpt:
Around the edges of the book
is the larger sky,
dotted with clouds,
and some overhanging branches
that appear to be slowly swaying
back and forth,
as if I were the one lying motionless…
Related articles
- Breathe Easy. Keep Reading. (readability.com)
Pam Webb 
Don’t forget to share your ‘finds’ with your blog-readers! I have the new featured book for this year’s NIR which I can share as soon as I finish it. Have you heard about a book titled Juliet? Overhead a person raving about it and I was going place it on hold as soon as I can figure out the exact title and author. .. You can get in line in front of me if you act quickly!
Right now I’m revisiting old friends like Room with a View and My Antonia. I think I heard about Juliet–isn’t it about Romeo and Juliet? I read Ophelia last year which is Hamlet’s Ophelia.
Got a mystery series as good as Evan in your book bag? 😉