My Summer Reading List

Usually, upon graduation of high school, people forget about summer reading lists. Summer is either full with classes, a job, an internship, or just vegging out. I usually chose the latter and conjoined it with a part-time job.

Summer reading lists were something that elementary school kids or high-schoolers did; I was in college, a place where I can take the summer off and play Xbox all day, every day, if I wanted to.

I never did read much. Starting in 8th Grade, I discovered that I could just not read and still get by. It continued in high school, the worst at sophomore year where I believe I read most of one book and half of another. In total, it was a little more than one book that I read that year; one book out of eight. Senior year I had a much better English teacher where I read all but one book (senioritis kicked in at that point). And for summer reading all those years, I always seemed to miss one book, but the school made it easy on me with a pass/fail system that allowed me to miss that one required reading and still get that 100 to show the parents.

So why start now?

Not only am I starting now, but I'm starting over. My years of half-ass reading are going out the door and I'm going to start anew.

My girlfriend is an avid reader. She's a beast and can read through an entire book in a couple hours. I cannot. It takes me awhile, maybe around a month if I'm good at it and keep to it. But, she has inspired me to read, to take adventures through the many pages of a mystery, be enthralled in a fantasy, and to like a book a whole lot more than a movie.

In April, I decided to challenge myself. This 20 something year old created my first summer reading list full of titles by Locke, Mark Twain, John Grisham, Charlotte Bronte, Shakespeare, J.D. Salinger, and even J.K. Rowling. Now its October and I've read a total of one book (more on that later) but I thought I would share my story with the world. I want to take you on my journey. I want to inspire others to read and show people that even though you're not the fastest reader, it shouldn't stop you from reading.

Throughout my journey, I'm going to keep updates, let you know what I think of the books I read and hopefully I can inspire someone else, a fellow once non-reader, to pick up a book and to challenge themselves. I ask you to comment, tell me your story, tell me what you thought of the books I've read, and suggest others for me to read.