I had so much fun with the previous post that I did, in which I revealed my large tiny book hoarding problem by gathering all of the unread books lying on my shelves, that I've decided to do some occasional themed posts on my book collection. It's really not that big, so we'll see how many topics I can think of before I run out of books to talk about (Of course, I can always add more, but I'm trying to be good with my book buying). And yes, sometimes I have way too much time on my hands that ideas like this even pop into my head.
Since it's the middle of summer, I thought a timely subject would be books that were assigned for school to be read during summer vacation. It also sort of ties in to my previous post about the book hoarding because I still have some of these books 20 or so years later, which explains why most of them look the worse for wear:
When I moved a few years ago, I did a pretty thorough clean out of my books while packing, and quite a few titles from my old school summer reading lists got tossed. I figured that I wasn't likely to read them ever again, and I really can't say that I've been itching to reread James Agee's A Death in the Family, Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County, or Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding, among others. The books that I have kept weren't necessarily because I loved them, but for whatever reason, I just didn't want to part with them. There's also still the mystery of where my copy of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man went. I know I lent it to somebody in college, but it was never returned. That book made zero sense to me when I read it for my senior year of high school, so it's not like I was crying over it going missing, but it has given me a phobia of lending my books out that persists until this day.
I remember actually being excited to receive my first summer reading list when I went to high school orientation. Ahh—the optimism of a freshman! The following year, I wasn't quite so thrilled when those pieces of paper were handed out toward the end of May, and I absolutely dreaded the sight of them at the end of junior year. I think my favorite list is still from freshman year, when I read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Pearl, and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. The selections after that were more miss than hit. I didn't realize it at the time, but they were slowly putting a damper on my love of reading that I wouldn't break out of until I was well into adulthood. I did rather like Les Misérables, though. I only had to read the abridged version, which is why my copy in the photo is so small; the unabridged version is over 1000 pages. My cousin, Ally, owns a copy, and seriously, it could double as a makeshift weapon.
Senior year's summer reading assignment was quite a drudge because I'd chosen English as one of my concentration subjects, and I had to take two English classes that year—which meant two summer reading lists. Les Misérables was on one of them, and I think I had a bit of luck because another book was on both lists. I had to read The Bridges of Madison County that year, and why, I could never figure out because our reading diet consisted almost exclusively of classic literature. Maybe it was because Bridges was still selling copies like mad at the time, and they just wanted us to read something off the bestseller's list for a change. I had the worst time reading Madame Bovary; Emma Bovary, if you thought your ennui was unbearable, you should have tried reading about it.
I really have to laugh at that reading list now because back then, I never thought I'd get to the end of it. There were about seven books on it, and I can usually read at least that many in a month now. When I was 17, though, the last thing I wanted to do was spend my summer doing my forced reading for school. There was only one time when I had to read a book over the summer for college, Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson, and that was for a special incoming freshmen event. And with that, my summers of required reading were finally over.
If there are any summer reading memories you'd like to share, whether they're happy stories or horror stories, feel free to leave them in the comments!
Pwahaha on the Madam Bovary comment. Oddly enough, I enjoyed the novel. I mean I didn't like the Madame but I sure had a jolly time hating on her.
ReplyDeleteMe too, haha! I couldn't stand her!
DeleteJane Eyre!!:)
ReplyDeleteIt's been so long since I read it! I've always been a much bigger Jane Austen fan than a fan of the Brontës, but I've been thinking about rereading Jane Eyre to see if my perspective on it has changed over the years. Though I don't think I could ever grow to like Wuthering Heights, lol.
DeleteI remember enjoying school reading generally - I mean I didn't enjoy all the books, but it was a way to explore different stories I wouldn't usually pick up. I wish I had some of those books now - I think I only have one or two.
ReplyDeleteOh and like Alisa said - Jane Eyre!! woot!
I loved reading Shakespeare in school and still do, but I couldn't really connect with most of the other books I had to read. Sometimes I wonder what I would think of them now, although there are some that I definitely know I still wouldn't like, lol.
DeleteHaha, I'm going to start University this fall and I TOTALLY understand the optimism of the freshman!!! I squealed of joy when I received my preliminary reading list!!! Then again, of course, I love reading more than pretty much everything else teenagers typically do during the summer, so it's totally okay with me to read nonfiction. Also, here in Germany we don't have summer reading in highschool, so the concept is completely foreign to me and i haven't had to go through for summers in a row, ruined with forced reading :) I really love To Kill a Mockingbird, by the way! and ever since I saw the movie, I kind of think I want to start Les Misérables....some day in my life :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck at university in the fall! :D I didn't know if there was still going to be required reading over the summer when I started college, but with the exception of the 1 book for freshman year, there wasn't any. It was a strange feeling at first to have summers without school obligations, but I got used to it pretty quickly!
DeleteSee, first I looked at the books you have pictured there and I thought: Man, I wish I'd gone to an English school, look at all the classics they get to read! Then I got to the part on your comment on Madame Bovary - which I had to read in French at University...let's just say that one's a snooze in whatever language you read it hahaha I can definitely relate to you saying you feel like those 'required' reads put you in a reading funk that took years to shake off! It was only when I finally got into Harry Potter around 2007 that I realized I had been in a HUGE slump. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to read for fun. >.< Anyhoo, I love this feature idea and I'm already anxious for the next installment :D
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Madame Bovary was boring! :D We did have to read a few books that I ended up enjoying, but the rest were so . . . flat. And we never got to read any Jane Austen, which I think is criminal. :( I feel bad about all of the years that I didn't really read because I couldn't find the fun in it; I'm definitely trying to make up for them now!
DeleteI enjoyed my high school reads, except for Chaucer and Richard the III. Gar!!! I know Chaucer's tales were funny/bawdy, but when you have to read it in old English at 17 years of age a lot of the sauciness doesn't seem worth it! However, the BBC did a series of modern tales based on the Chaucers Tales and they were wonderfully imaginative and fresh...clearly the screenplay writers had a greater appreciation for the original than I did! I enjoyed Tess of the D'urbervilles, though it made me cry and when I tried the rest of Thomas Hardy I couldn't get over how morbid he was...especially when I read Jude. My favourite read was George Bernard Shaw's "Mrs Warren's Profession." It's so well written and laden with sarcasm - brilliant, scathing commentary of the society of the time, and it hasn't really aged, IMHO
ReplyDeleteMy junior year of high school English was devoted to British Literature, and we read just the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales. Fortunately, we read it in modern English! I think that BBC series might have aired here on BBC America, but as usual, I missed it. I do own the DVD of the Shakespeare Retold movies- loved the Macbeth one with Richard Armitage and James McAvoy. And I've always wanted to read Tess of the D'urbervilles. I have a free Amazon version downloaded on my computer; just have to sit down one day and start it.
Delete