I put a thought out on Twitter a few days back about the idea of making myself a summer reading list, like the ones you used to get for school/college/university, or getting someone else to make one for me. Because I'm a massive geek I really loved the fact of having an actual physical list full of titles - some of which I'd inevitably already read, some I already planned to read and a few I'd never heard of, and heading off the library to see what they had from it. Crossing books off of it gave me a bit of a thrill. I know, I'm making myself sound super cool here, right?
Anyway, a few years back my sister, whose coolness factor is similar to my own, asked me to make her one of the books I'd recommend her to read over her summer break. I know that most of us don't get summer breaks now, but it's still nice to have a list and use the summer to try out books we wouldn't necessarily read otherwise, and I know lots of bloggers are as weird about lists as I am myself, so I had a thought. Although making lists for yourself is fun, and I'm sure there are hundreds of lists already on the internet, I thought it might be fun to have a challenge where we all make a list of books we'd recommend as summer reading and then we could look through each others' and either pick someone else's to read from or create one for ourselves from everybody's suggestions, whatever we prefer.
Obviously this is designed to be fun and nobody's saying you have to read exclusively from the list, or really from the list at all if life doesn't go that way. The geeky kid in me just really wanted an excuse to make a list :-p Also in light of the whole stupid Michael Gove situation here in the UK, this seemed even more fitting!
If you're interested, leave me a comment saying hi, and link your list through the linky below :-) Happy summer, everybody!
WHAAAAT they axed Mockingbird and Mice?! 1) reading Of Mice and Men at school is probably the sole reason why I have read Steinbeck at this point, AND the reason I now want to read more, and 2) Mockingbird is SUCH an important book, and often becomes a favourite of readers EVEN THOUGH they normally don't like school-set reading. Or any reading, if my ex-shop customers are anything to go by. I can't think of many books that capture the non-eager-readers as well as the happy ones. Ugh, stupid man. It says a lot that he "really dislikes" OMAM - like that's a reason to take it off the curriculum. That's like saying "I'm the minister for fishing and agriculture, and I HATE lamb... therefore I don't want farmers breeding sheep any more." UGH. If I was forced to read Dickens and GEORGE FUCKING ELIOT at school instead of what I DID read - which included Of Mice and Men and The Outsiders - I might not have followed Literature into university, nor been such a wide reader today. DICCCCCCCK.
ReplyDeleteOkay I'm done. And also off to think about lists and summer reading, because I like both of those things. *takes a deep breath, hops off soapbox and stomps away to sulk*
That's basically what I've been doing at Rhys all day. I think he's getting slightly bored of it :-p But seriously, what the hell is wrong with the guy???? Let's make teenagers hate reading, because making kids more literate isn't a good thing for crime rates, future employment and generally making better people for society. Not at all. He's such a dick it's actually impossible to comprehend how the hell he has power.
DeleteI never actually had a summer reading list :(
ReplyDeleteAnd do not start me on Michael Gove, this recent news doesn't surprise me as he has already mutilate the primary curriculum for pretty much every subject. Michael Gove bashing is a popular sport at my school!
Aww Sam! I feel bad for you never having a reading list, feel free to browse (hopefully some people other than myself will actually do this :-p) I'd say make one, but you're probably going to have enough to do with the little one and all!!
Deletehere's a thought, why not add books to a list instead of deleting them? Huh? Make a list of 50 and say you have to read half of them. shakes head, sorry, preaching to the choir
ReplyDeleteMy list would be a mix of genres. I use to think I read everything but book blogging has made me realize my the my page count may be high but the mix of genres is not as diverse as I thought
Exactly! One of the best things about studying literature is its' diversity. I hate that it's being so narrowly defined as 'only stuff written by British authors has any value' which is just total crap!
DeleteMake the list - link it up and then we can all have a look! I'm totally with you in that I thought I was an eclectic reader but blogging's made me realise I'm nowhere near as diverse as I thought!
This is a great idea! I will have a think about my list.
ReplyDeleteOh awesome :-) I've sort of started making mine but need to peruse my shelves and GR some more!
DeleteHave actually just posted my blog post with my list and linked above. :)
DeleteThis looks really cool!
ReplyDeleteI hope it will be Isabel, if enough people join in! :-)
DeleteCount me in! I have a summer reading list every year though I don't always follow it. :-) When it comes to the Michael Gove situation, all I could do is shake my head. It's ridiculous. I have wrote my post about this challenge yet but I did start a pinterest board of my summer reading list: http://www.pinterest.com/vasilly/summer-reading-2014/
ReplyDeleteOoh you made me put myt hinking hat on and I came up with a petty sweet list. But it's not going up until this weekend :-)
ReplyDeleteTanya Patrice
Girlxoxo.com
I've decided to use this reading challenge as an opportunity to make a list of my top 10 books that I have always wanted to read but never have. There's certainly more than 10 but I don't want to try and do more than I will realistically get to.
ReplyDeleteThe reading list I made for myself is hopefully going to make a serious dent in my TBR pile..
ReplyDelete