Summer Reading List

When I was young, I read...

A lot. 

I was so obsessed with books and reading, it was almost embarrassing.  I am not really quite sure what spurred on my love of reading but I remember that in the fourth grade I finished reading all of the chapter books in my age category that were available in my school's library.  I also remember that this was about the time that my talent for being inpatience came to be.

My 4th grader teacher read True Confession of Charlotte Boyle by Avi to us each day right before recess or something like that. Sometimes, depending on her mood, she would read a chapter...sometimes she would read a couple of pages. So I checked the book out from the public library and finished it that night. 

Even though I had to sit through for the next couple of months listening to a rerun of a book I just finished, at least I did not have to patiently anticipate whether or not if Charlotte and her siblings reached America. 

I would sneak a flashlight in my room and stay up reading until I finished the book because I hated waiting to know what happened. 

When I know that I won't have time to finish the entire book, I read what I could and then skip right to the last couple of chapters and finish it off.

Sometimes when my impatience gets really bad,  I skip and skim the pages when it only contains details and unnecessary information.... 

(I don't know where this inpatience comes from)

This happened for the next couple of years. In the 5th grade, instead of actually reading during "reading time" I was tutoring students my own age to read. 

No joke. My teacher would reserve a room in the school's library in order for me to tutor students who were either my age or older then me. Mostly they were boys who had yet to grow into their giant bodies. Patience was definitely needed as I sat there for 30 mins everyday listening to him  struggle reading Junie B. Jones and the smell bus tour.

If the swings were all taken during recess, I went to the library and helped the librarian re-shelve books or place laminate covers on the paperbacks.
It got so bad that my mom would have to set a reading time limit so that I could eat dinner or do something else but read....
(my mom blames the fact that I have to have glasses on my reading ....can that even happen?)

By the 6th grade, I had finished every single book in every single genre for every single age section in my school. 

In Junior high I still read. A lot. I read everything from dog training books to romance novels. 

In high school, I could finish Harry Potter within a day or two of its release. I even read my entire AP Biology and AP History textbook.

So naturally, I am a book worm and book worms keep a running list of books that they want to read. Every time I see a book I am interested I either jot it down on a scrap piece of paper or text it to myself. 

However, since I have started college where all you do is read textbooks, my reading has slowed down. 

A lot actually. 

I still keep adding to my reading list but I haven't really been able to check any of them off....

I am not sure if it is because I haven't been able to FIND books that intrigue me as they once did...or if it is because I am just all read out. 

The last book that I enjoyed is Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. He has several books, one of them is Tess of the D'urbervilles. I rationally thought that since Mayor of Casterbridge was such a great book, Tess of the D'urbervilles must be too! 

Was I wrong. 

It has taken me months to trudge through the first 5 chapters...and I still have have yet to finish it. 

I am currently juggling several books, in hopes that one of these books will finally spark my love for books again. 

I am half way through Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and The Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox. I just finished The Prince by Machiavelli and recently started The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.

I just wish I loved reading like I did when I was young.