summer reading!

probably, you hated summer reading. i have to tell you that my first experience with summer reading was horrible. i was in between 8th and 9th grade, gearing up to leave tiny st. mary's school for Public School. i wasn't sure what happened in Public School, but i was pretty sure that people lit things (or people) on fire and gangs roamed the halls, preying on the weak. or so they said in catholic school. anyway, i was pretty scared about the kind of crowd i'd be running with in (nerd alert) Honors English, Honors Global Studies, and Honors Earth Science. and what would i wear without uniforms to fall back on? (answer: flannel shirts and overalls. i know.) and what if everyone knew more than me? if i had no friends? one thing i hadn't thought to worry about though. nobody told me about the summer reading! and one day, in august, my horseback riding friend who was already a public school ruffian mentioned summer reading and i was like, what the heck are you talking about? a downward spiral of anxiety and defeat ensued, but i went to the library, found my five books (five!) and hammered them out before school started.

after that (nerd alert) i have to admit i kind of liked summer reading. and think of all the classic books i read! i think i underappreciated them. sure, the great gatsby and the old man and the sea are slim novels with a fairly limited vocabulary. but did f. scott fitzgerald really write for acne-ridden 14 year-olds in hormonal overdrive? no he did not.

so, my point. there is a lovely little theater near me called the strand theatre that on monday nights in the summer has "monday night classics". this monday's feature was to kill a mockingbird. i was in the hospital, so i couldn't make it, but it got me thinking. i know that i read that book a million years ago, but what was it even about? and then...

1. i should do something more meaningful than updating facebook or watching whole seasons of 30 rock.
2. i've been meaning to read more.
3. but nothing too serious.
3a. definitely nothing medical.
4. and i hardly ever use my library card.
5. and i have that $20 barnes and noble gift card.

and so i am going to reinstate summer reading. i think i'd like to start with gatsby. and to kill a mockingbird. maybe some john steinbeck. so many options.

tell me, what would you reread in your free time?