Recent Readings

Summertime, I find, is a good time to catch up on pleasure reading.
I try to read at school in between classes, but I usually end up binge reading for a week or two, then dropping all forms of literature for a month or more. Once school ends, I usually take regular trips to Mckay's Used Books to stockpile some good stuff :)

Things I'm reading/have read:

1) Lots of Flannery O'Conner. I have a volume of her complete stories - so far, I've only read A Good Man is Hard to Find, The Geranium, The Turkey, The Train, The Peeler, Enoch and the Gorilla, The Artificial Nigger, Good Country People, and Judgment Day. These have been absolutely wonderful, and I'm determined to finish all of the short stories by the time school starts up again. Miss O'Conner is just the master of all people freakish. It's interesting to see the difference between her earlier and later writings, and my boyfriend (who will from now on be referred to simply as "Colton" is patiently teaching me that sometimes the point is written to illustrate the story, not the other way around.

2) The memoir of Tennessee Williams. I love memoirs, because I love people but I don't understand them. (Which is why we are all so interested in each other, I suppose... who even understands themselves?) Verdict: He is a strange, brilliant man who has had a very interesting life. He's a bit of a drama queen, though. I suppose that's what makes him a good playwright.

3) The adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I've always loved Mark Twain, and I thought that I had read Huck back in the day... apparently, I only read Tom Sawyer. So I'm amending that fact, and enjoying it immensely. I especially like Jim.

4) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. (Well... technically I read this one this past semester. But I list it as one of my favorites, so I'll go ahead and include it.) This book captures the thoughts and fears of an autistic boy so... poignantly, I suppose. I felt so much while reading this, and I also immensely enjoyed the little puzzles that are stuck in every so often. It took me an entire day to understand the Monty Hall Problem.

I also reread The Grapes of Wrath, which was even better the second time through.

There are many more books on the docket... A little Irving, a lot of Lewis, a little more Twain, some Faulkner ( I love The Sound and the Fury, so I recently purchased Absalom, Absalom!), and a few more collections of short stories.

So what about you, faithful readers? (Meaning April. You're my only reader so far.) What do you find to be good summer reading?