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My Summer Reading List
We could probably all agree that I haven’t been around the blog much this summer. You see...I did purchase that Amazon wireless reading device called a Kindle. It arrived on my doorstep somewhere around the 6th of May and it took all of about 15 minutes for me to decide that it was the best invention since sliced bread. It has, evidently, galvanized my reading lust.
Reasons why I love my Kindle:
1)It’s easier carrying it wherever I go, than lugging a heavy book or two or three with me. (I don’t have to decide which book I want to take with me...I can take them all on my Kindle and read what I’m in the mood to read. I also have a newspaper subscription on it.)
2) It’s easier reading it in bed than trying to juggle a large book and a cup of coffee (yes, I drink coffee at bedtime...then go to sleep).
3) It’s easier to read...I can select my own font size.
4) Since life seems to be composed of waiting in line for too many daily tasks, I can read my Kindle rather than fuss and fume about having to wait.
5) I can download a book in about 5 seconds flat wherever I am...in bed, standing in line, sitting in the car, etc.
6) I can download a chapter or two of a book that I’m not sure yet that I want to buy. For free.
7) The classics are cheap...Pride and Prejudice was a whole 25 cents. I’ve spent a total of $50.32 for 12 Kindle books.
8) Kindle books take up a lot less space than a shelf full of dead tree editions. And I can carry all of them with me wherever I go.
9) Amazon keeps a copy of all my Kindle purchases so if my Kindle ever fails, my library is still intact and preserved.
I still use the public library extensively—for books that I am not sure that I’d choose to permanently add to my own library or for books that I can’t purchase on Kindle. If, after reading a library book, I decide that I’d like to add it to my library, my Kindle is ready and waiting for a download.
The point is...I’d much rather read a book on my Kindle now. And I have been. A lot.
So. Between Kindle and the library, I’ve had a very bookish summer, so far.
Books I’ve Read This Summer
Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure (♥ L)
I’d ordered this book from the library a week or so before I bought my Kindle.
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice (♥ K)
Mansfield Park (K)
Pride and Prejudice makes me literally laugh out loud. Every time I read it, something new jumps out at me. Love this book.
Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre (♥ K)
I read this book annually. My dead tree edition is 117 years old now. It needs a rest.
Jim Butcher, Dresden Files Series
Storm Front (L)
Fool Moon (L)
Grave Peril (L)
Summer Knight (K)
Death Masks (K)
Blood Rites (K)
Dead Beat (L)
Proven Guilty (K)
White Knight (K)
Small Favor (K)
These are really fun books about an eccentric sort of modern day wizard (in Chicago) doing battle against all sorts of badness. After I ordered the first three through the library, I decided to add the set to my Kindle. I’ll read each of these again. Well done. I love ‘em.
Dan Koeppel
Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World (L)
Everything you ever wanted to know about bananas and a lot that you didn’t: The current banana crop is pretty much a monoculture crop that’s dying out from a global virus and too often the harvests are brought to us by child/slave labor and egregiously corrupt governments and corporations. Banana Republic didn’t get its name for nothing. It is still a dirty business. Makes me regret loving banana bread so much. Excellent read and resource. I’ll be adding it to my Kindle.
H.C. Flores
Food not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community (L)
Any grass is too much grass. This author agrees. ;)
Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass (K)
This is the last of His Dark Materials trilogy (which included The Golden Compass). I’d checked the book out of the library, but only had read about half of it before its due date. I’ll add the first two to my Kindle eventually. They’re keepers.
DH Lawrence
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (♥ K)
I really do ♥ ♥ ♥ this book. Gets better with every reading.
Dmitry Orlov
Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects (♣)
Not a popular book, evidently. My library didn’t even have it. If you’ve ever been curious about what life was like in Russia after the gov’t and economic collapse, this is a good resource. Definitely a leftist bent to it, way lefter than I am even. An illuminating read. Worth the purchase price.
George Eliot
Middlemarch (K)
Currently Reading
Howard Zinn
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present (L)
Very regrettably, Kindle doesn’t offer this book yet. It’s a fantastic book and I’ll want to return to it many more times. Zinn is a terrific writer.
Books Remaining on my Summer Reading List
Anthony Trollope, The Pallisers Series
Can You Forgive Her? (♥ K)
Phineas Finn (♥ K)
The Eustace Diamonds (♥ K)
Phineas Redux (♥ K)
The Prime Minister (♥ K)
The Duke’s Children (♥ K)
Years ago, I watched The Pallisers on Masterpiece Theater, which encouraged me to read the books. It’s been years since I’ve read them. I’m looking forward to jumping into them again with a...slightly older perspective.
David McCullough
John Adams (K)
Michael Pollan
Omnivore’s Dilemma (L)
Christopher Moore
Spirit House: A Vincent Calvino Crime (K)
I’ve never read anything by Christopher Moore, but Kindle offered this new release for free...so hey. Free book, I’ll give it a try. Could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Cormac McCarthy
The Road (K)
Nothing like an apocalypse to round out the summer.
Key:
♥ - books I’ve read before and will again.
K - Kindle book
L - from the library
♣ - purchased dead tree edition
Gasp! You’re reading Zinn? You..you..liberal, you!
I got through about three of the Dresden Files books and at least temporarily lost interest.
How are you and Amelia doing? 
LOL. Yup, I’m a liberal and proud of it. 
Butcher grew a lot as a writer in the latter half of his series. Long about book three, I was concerned that the books were all going to be more or less the same-plot-different-day, but he pleasantly surprised me. His plots got rather complex and his characters way more textured and even subtle. The books turned out be real page turners.
Amelia and I have been on hiatus. My library doesn’t have the middle five books of the series. They’re supposed to but I think those are books that eventually were never returned or were lost or something. Never replaced. (They do have the audio downloads for the computer, but I can’t sit still long enough to listen!) I’m pleased to find that Kindle has the last half of the series and is adding the first half a little at a time. Amelia is an autumn/winter read for me, so I think we’ll be able to pick up where we left off this September. 
I look forward to it, too. Amelia was quite an independent minded woman for her time...or any time. She amuses me to no end. She gets to say the things that most of us WISH we could get away with.
If you join Bookmooch you’ll find a fair number of Amelia books there:
http://www.bookmooch.com/s/amelia+peabody
I’d have to GIVE books away? :::shudder:::
I confess that I probably have a lot that I could give away in exchange for different ones, but my books are all currently neatly packed in boxes in my attic. No telling when they might re-emerge into my living space. I don’t have room!
I think the kindle is the best thing that has ever happened to you, and the environment lol. You people have NO idea what a book junkie she is! Its kinda on the line of what the Ring does to people/hobbit’s in the Lord of the Rings........ Preciouses oh Preciouses!
I have to say you really have done very well with them locked up in the attic, I thought for sure some of them would make their way down by now!
I wish I could get one but, sigh, only if I wanted to go through a so called divorce again lol. That would be a deal breaker for E .
Are we on by chance today? They say periodic showers, like the last few days, but is has kept to very brief or just at night (like while I was outside cooking on the grill for the first time in years upon years lol)
I need to run to the market this morning with my little lad for provisionals and then I am good to go. Hey you might even get a free home cooked dinner if your really, really good! He he. Give me a call when you are up and about.
I love to read also, but never seem to find that amount of time to read as much. When Nat was in the hospital, I would read a book a day, sitting there with really not much to do. But now I read in spurts. Just finished eat-pray love and Light on Snow.
From one book junkie to another.....I was wandering in a bookstore the other day in Kailua and my friend John said no, no......the local library is having a booksale today, go there. So I did, Luckily they limit you to 10 books at a time cause I have ten--all hardcovers and they only charge 50 cents each. I paid them a dollar each and still felt like I cheated them. I threw them all in the trunk of our rented car and if I don’t finish when I leave, then will let our friend donate them back to the library. I will do that with the ones I read. We took the ferry to Maui yesterday (Linkmeister if you notice this, the ferry was great!! And we could bring our car), so read one on the way over and will do the same when we go back to Honolulu Monday, sat on the beach today and read almost an entire other one. It doesn’t get much better than this!!
Lady Chatterly’s lover. How I laughed when I saw that one. Read it for the first time when I was maybe 11?? Under the covers with a flashlight when I was supposed to be sleeping and was NOT supposed to be reading that book!! Amazingly it was considered X rated (if they even had such a thing as X rated) then!!
Happy Reading!! Aloha!
I envy you the ferry ride, cyn. One of these days…
Ferry ride both both ways was fantastic. I had upgraded to the front cabin)??) so we were looking out the entire way, seating is great (in the upgrade) and not bad in the other two cabins. Showed a movie both ways, I was too busy looking around to watch on the way, coming back sort of did as it was after 8PM but I can’t say enough good things about it. I think they are still running their summer special - $49 each way - we took our rental car with us amd that was only $65 each way, was a very enjoyable trip.
Love my word Kate--Impeach. Haven’t heard that one for a while.
OH, and Obama is staying on Kailua Beach which is all of three minutes from where we are staying. 3 minutes and probably 6 million dollars difference. I spent the afternoon on the beach but did not see him, but then he probably has a private beach!
I was wondering if you might be in Obama’s general vicinity. Would’ve been fun to see him.
Not that I want to rush you back home or anything, but do you think you could drag some of that lovely Hawaiian weather back with you? Sure could use it!
missed my chance again today...he went jogging down here early this morning and I jusr found out (it’s around 11AM). Maybe tomorrow, I will take up jogging. There are worse places I am sure.
Just checked the forecast for home and it is cloudy, humid, some sun and weekend (next) more clouds then sun. I think if I cannot bring some back, I just won’t leave!! ;) They complained here the other day it was humid. Could have fooled me!! Ocean breezes obviously keep all of that to a minimum. You drive down the mountain into Honolulu and always as clear as can be. Yes, I could definitely get used to this.
See if you can get a webcam of the Pali or the Kamahemaha Highway. Or my favorite of all routes, the coastal route which might be 72?? Not sure, just know where it is and how to get to it!!
We’re threatened with torrential rains and floods today. Wahoo. Our weather totally sucks.
Did you know, Cyn, that you are vacationing in an implied unAmerican exotic place even if it is a US state? I used to think Cokie Roberts had a functioning brain, but maybe not. She criticized Obama yesterday for going to such an odd place for a vacation that maybe makes him look a little too exotic. She thought Myrtle Beach would have been a better choice.
Good lord. There’s no premium on stupid these days.
oh my god, she is seriously delusional. A little too exotic, eh? Guess she missed the part about him growing up here along with a few other issues. Weird. Guess she has never been to Hawaii, maybe she should visit, then rethink her statements. Crazy. Sounds like a serious case of hawaii-envy to me.
He probably should have visited Japan-it must be empty this month as I swear 99% of the tourist population in the last week has been Japanese! Of course, they also own a great portion of the island as well.
Maybe she needs a day or so between the sheets at Caesar’s!! LOL
Myrtle Beach.............give me a break!