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Summer reading, had me a blaast

So here I am, on the Tuesday after my vacation, desperately wishing I were independently wealthy and could just sit on a porch reading forever and ever. Or at least whenever the hell I felt like it. And since I'm sitting here wishing, I'd also appreciate it if John Cusack (from his Say Anything not Being John Malkovich days) would be my personal assistant/chef/maid/eye candy/ego stroker. My inner adolescent still pines for Lloyd Dobler. I'd probably have dropped trow, a la Diane Court, myself. Heck, I might still. But I digress...

Over vacation I read 8 books. EIGHT! And it wasn't because the weather sucked and I was stuck inside. It was just so nice to grab a book, start reading, and not either be interrupted or, worse, feel guilty about not doing something else I was supposed to be doing. Because there wasn't anything else to do. Except eat. And we all know I took breaks to do that. Although there were a few times Friendster Guy and I brought our food out to the porch and just kept right on reading.

The first thing we did when we got to the cabin was move a chair and a chaise together so we could both prop up our feet and sit for hours, feet/legs touching, not saying a word, lost in our own little worlds. Sometimes we'd go down to the beach and do the same thing. I did get antsy one day and went for a run but other than that (and a brief interruption when I realized the cabin had Bravo and there were Top Chef and Project Runway marathons on) we just read and read and read.

Here's the books I got through:
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom (I liked this more than I expected to. It's better and less schmaltzy than I thought it would be.)
One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
Two for the Dough - Janet Evanovich (she makes it real easy to know where you are in the series - 1, 2, 3...)
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
Playmates - Robert B. Parker (always entertaining)
Walking to Vermont - Christopher Wren (I've always had a secret longing to walk the Appalachian trail and have found narratives about it fascinating. At 65, this guy walked from Time Square, where he was a reporter/correspondent at the New York Time, to Vermont where he was retiring.)
The Sweet Potato Queen Field Guide to Men - Jill Conner Browne (this one had me laughing out loud and forcing FG to read passages.)
Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs (If you ever feel like your childhood was crazy and it's amazing you came out alive, read this book. Your family will look like the Brady Bunch.)

There you have it. All my summer reading condensed into one week. Anyone out there discover any books this summer I should try?

Comments

Anonymous said…
The whole world over- julia glass
also, i own just about all of the evanovich books except 2 if you ever want to finish the series (or catch up-she's now on #13 not including the "extra books" she snuck in
I had the exact same reaction to the five people in heaven book. It was a pleasant surprise.

I've read the first three of the Evanovich series, even got NS reading them, and now I have all but #13 in e-book. If work ever lets up more than five minutes, I might be able to read them while pretending to work;>

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