Summer Reading Approaches

Hello everyone. As the school year finally begins to draw to a close, I can begin to focus on spending my time on things I enjoy; relaxing, writing, and, one of my favorite past times, reading.


My high school requires that we read three books over the summer, one of which is the same one everybody in thew grade reads, while the two others are ones we choose off of a list. I imagine that this is a pain for some people, but I personally like it. It introduces me to new, classic, and challenging books. I'm a total nerd when it comes to reading, so I just love choosing the hardest books on the list and really pushing myself.

This summer, I plan to tackle two challenging but very interesting reads. One is Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, which chronicles the adventures of a Black man in the fifties as he journeys from a university in the South to Harlem in NYC. I've just learned about that time period in my AP US History course at school, so I think that'll be interesting. My other goal is to read Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Yes, yes, I know; it's long. However, I read Tolstoy's Anna Karenina last summer and enjoyed it, so I'm hoping this one will be just as good.

There are other books on the list that I'm interested in, which I can maybe try and read if I have time or some other time. I just think reading is so great! It's like creating a movie inside your own head, where you can decide for yourself what the characters look like based on the descriptions in the story. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking TV; I love it. I just think there's something wonderful about opening a book, especially a good one by a talented writer (which I hope some day to be). With any luck, perhaps those of you are reading my blog can take some time this summer to read a book as well. Let's make reading cool! :-)