Last week was "Pulp Fiction" week at Slate. In addition to the fabulous recasting of canonical works with pulp fiction covers, the week's coverage also included a list of writers' picks for "beach reads." I love lists and I especially love lists about books (and I love how often Proust gets mentioned in lists about books, lingering in the background as the thing that should be read, but never will be--nor should it, in my opinion). In this list, I particularly love George Saunders' entry about Moby Dick's memoir. The list has me contemplating what I will read this summer. I have shelves full of books that I haven't yet read (thanks to the library's used book sales), so I'm not sure where to begin. In the immediate rotation:
*Skeletons on the Zahara (Dean King), a real-life adventure tale recommended by my dad
*Geek Love (Katherine Dunn), recommended by Will
*The Dark is Rising Series (Susan Cooper) because I just bought them at the library sale and I loved this stuff when I was a kid.
After that, I'm not sure what I'll read. But the important thing here is what are you reading (or planning to read) this summer?
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I'm still reading through the novel-like version of the Ramayana I have. When I get bored with it suddenly another Rakasha (or demon) appears and then Rama or Lakshmana or some other adroit waxes philosophic and I'm dragged back into it. After I finish that I think I'm going to pick up Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead. I started it right near the end of the semester and couldn't really concentrate on it because of various distractions. I don't know what else. I'm still not a big fan of the new so I'll probably pull out some obscure between the wars author I've been meaning to get to for several years.
Funny you should ask: I recently organized the massive stack of books I had scattered hither and yon around the house, and have mighty towers of fiction, genre theory, non-fiction, and poetry I plan to make my way through. I also went to the West Jordan Library yesterday (tempting the fates that make me forget to return my books on time at least once a summer, sometimes for a couple of years)--I got the newest Philip Roth, but also a Robert B. Parker novel (possibly 2) that I have already read. Also a Nicola Griffith lesbian detective novel that I am apparently fated to read once every couple of years, because it's just that good. Stay, it's called. The previous one in the series, The Blue Room, is even better, but it was checked out.
Oh! The list of books I am about to read.
I want to finish a bunch that I'm in the middle of.
And read something by Ishiguro that people keep recommending.
And, I always need to read some mysteries. I just finished _Lost in a Good Book_ which was a fun, quick read.
I try to avoid anything weighty in the summer.
Since I'm not traveling anywhere exotic this summer (St. Louis, Seattle, Milwaukee) while my colleagues in the foreign language dept are off to Ghana, Russia, Scotland, Grenada, Morocco, and who knows where else, I'm hitting travel narratives hard, both essays (Rough Guide: Women Travel and Best American Travel Writing) and book-length works (currently Sahara Unveiled, England for All Seasons). I'm also catching up on a semester's worth of National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, and Budget Travel magazines. When I get tired of all this vicarious visiting I'll switch to novels.
Geek Love is one of my all time faves. Let me know how you like it. I just finished Devil in the White City because I was traveling near/toward Chicago.
Kindred by Octavia Butler; Nova by Samuel Delany; Cotton Comes to Harlem by Chester Himes
In general, I'm getting back into science fiction, so I also plan on reading some new sci fi authors. Also have to re-read the novels I'm teaching this summer, esp. No-No Boy by John Okada and The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chesnutt.
Finally, I want to read more graphic novels. Any suggestions?
What graphic novels have you read already, MB? I like anything by Clowes.
Alas, not much. I was just reading one called Epileptic by David B. It's a graphic memoir about the author's brother.
I'll loan you the two by Clowes that I have.
Lying to Mr. Beebe.
"She refrained from uttering it. So at least I long believed, for at that time I still supposed that it was by means of words that one communicated the truth to others."
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