By now you may have noticed a certain fascination with lists. The latest list is from nearly 16,000 NPR listeners who cast their votes for their favorite beach reads. Click on the title of this blog entry to get yourself to the full list of 100.
I was surprised to see that I've actually read several of the books on this list despite growing up in land-locked Nebraska and spending no time on the beach. And I was also surprised (and pleased) to see that there are many books on this list that I don't typically think of as "beach" reading, which, I admit, I've always understood to be a bit on the trashier side. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. And not that I haven't read my share of what one might consider "trashy.")
Actually, several titles like East of Eden and Middlesex have been on my mental list of What to Read Next for a long time, but I always seem to get distracted by something else. Mind you, I've been ridiculed many times for not having read East of Eden...'How can you, an English teacher who teaches American Literature, respectably hold up your head when you haven't read Steinbeck's greatest work?' (Because I've been teaching The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men over and over and over, that's why!)
OK, I've read 38 1/2 of the 100 books on this list. (Sorry, I just couldn't finish Stephen King's The Stand, even if the crazy old lady was sitting in a cornfield in Nebraska.) My favorites have to be The Great Gatsby, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Like Water for Chocolate, Ender's Game, A Confederacy of Dunces, Interview with the Vampire, Animal Dreams, Pillars of the Earth, and Eye of the Needle. Loved them all.
I'd like to say that I'm going straight to the library to check out East of Eden and finally get the thing read. I do want to read it; I really do. But, just now, I'm reading Frank McCourt's book Angela's Ashes, which I had in mind to read ages ago. Shortly after McCourt's death, I was rambling around the New York Times blog about books, also called Paper Cuts, and read so many comments about what an inspiring teacher he was that I finally checked it out and have begun reading.
What did I tell you about getting distracted?
Happy reading. Hope you're getting a few hours on the beach as we head quickly to the beginning of another school year.
~Midland Librarian
Monday, August 3, 2009
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