Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Revisiting The Tried and True

Back in my student days, I had a bit of a summer reading ritual: as soon as school was done for the summer months, I was off to the library to pick up something by John Irving or Graham Greene, two of my favourite authors. My goal was to eventually work my way through all of their books. Since then, life has gotten in the way and I am behind with a lot of my favourites so I decided it was time to do something about it. It's been a pretty mediocre year so far and I'm hoping that revisiting some of my old favourites will help turn things around.

Here's who/what I'm planning to catch up on in the coming months:

  • John Irving, though I haven't decided which book yet. He may also be publishing a new one in the fall, which I'm very excited about.
  • Graham Greene, either The Third Man or Travels With My Aunt.
  • Alice Munro, Dear Life
  • Khaled Hosseini, And The Mountains Echoed
  • Judy Blume, In The Unlikely Event. I'm so excited for this one! Here's a great interview with Blume about this novel/
  • Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point. Oddly enough, I have yet to read to his very first book.
  • Michael Ondaatje, not sure whether to go with something old or something new yet.
  • Something fun by Sophie Kinsella
  • Agatha Christie, the first book in the Miss Marple series.
That list may be a little too ambitious but we'll see how far I get. There's one favourite missing from the list because she's actually already been done this year (The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver). That's a good start, right? 

I've also been dipping into multiple series in the last little while so next time I feel like a good, long, meaty read, I might just tackle the next book in the Outlander or Song of Ice and Fire series. But first, something new: I'll be starting Divergent in the next few days. I've been looking forward to it so here's hoping it lives up to the hype!

Who are some of your favourites? What/who do you go for when you want to guarantee a good read? 

2 comments:

  1. Great idea and great list! When I need a reset after a string of duds or heavy books, my tried and trues lately are Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult. Might not always be the best books in the world, but their recipes usually work pretty well!

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    1. It doesn't always have to be super literary, fun is good too :) I have a Jodi Piccoult book on my shelf, I need to read something of hers one of these days!

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