Well, it's finally summer. The season of no school, of hot weather, of vacations and swimming and having lots of time to myself to just read. It's also the season of street fairs and used book sales and me ordering books online to use for tutoring and treating myself to a few as well. This year, summer brought a late spring cleaning, which led to me inheriting some books that my sister got from the woman whose children we used to babysit after her book club was done with them. Needless to say, I am even more surrounded by reading material now, have no space, and am not sure what to read next!
So, I have unintentionally embarked on a journey of reading several books at once. It started with my trip to used book sale #1, where I picked up (for fifty cents each) The Secret Life of Bees, Catch Me If You Can (the book), and Bridget Jones's Diary (already read but hilarious). My sister then gave me The Tales of Beetle the Bard, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, The Time Traveler's Wife, and Water for Elephants (which I have already read and enjoyed but not as much as the movie). I then attended used book sale #2, where I purchased Vanity Fair (#79) for another fifty cents. So, that's 8 books for a whopping $2.00. I then decided to purchase some books online as a gift to myself, which ended up being Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (in preparation for next year, since I have been buying myself one book per year until the set is complete), To Kill A Mockingbird, and Bossypants by Tina Fey (which I have listened to on audiobook and loved and definitely had to own it, especially since the new version is an orange-y peach color).
I then got a very strong urge to read To Kill A Mockingbird, and was a little ashamed that I did not own the book. I went on an excursion to several book stores and could not find a version that I liked (the hard cover with the correct cover had ragged pages, the hard cover with nice page edges had the wrong cover and was expensive, the paperback versions was too small, etc.) so after hemming and hawing for a couple of days, I decided to just get the small paperback with the wrong cover (I was never a big fan of the strange looking tree anyways) because it was cheaper, and now that I have it, I like it and enjoy the fact that it looks unique. I'm just a little ways in right now and Jem has just rescued his pants from the Radley's fence. I remember reading this freshman year of high school and enjoying it (and rereading it in a day because I had, as most high schoolers do, run out of time to read for homework (ie procrastinated and found better things to do) and sparknoted most of the book) and did want to reread it for this challenge.
While school is in session, I like to have a book in my bag that is an easy read that can be easily taken out and put away and read in small sections, so I started Secret Life of Bees for that purpose and got a little ways into that one as well. I'll have to finish that one up to decrease the number of books I'm reading at once. My plan is to possibly get an audiobook of it, as I am going to be driving 7 hours to visit a friend this weekend and may enjoy hearing the story on the way.
The third book I'm reading is Vanity Fair since it ended up at my boyfriend's house after the sale we went to, and although I am about 5 pages in right now, it seems enjoyable and a little easier to read than I had anticipated.
So, once at least two of those are done, I'll head into Lord of the Rings. (but I've said that so many times that I hardly believe myself and definitely wouldn't bet money on it!) Happy Summer!
