Adventures in Reading

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

                                                                                                                             --Ray Bradbury

Welcome to Summer 2012. My hometown library is offering readers of all ages a summer of reading adventures. Suggested adventures for adults include attending an author's lecture, writing a book review for the library's blog, and checking out an audiobook/e-book. Meaning: try something different this year. 

If you are in a reading rut, this is your chance to climb out. Do you always browse in the same reading section in a library or book store? Last year, I realized I had never read a western and decided to start with Louis L'Amour's "The Quick and the Dead." Okay, I am still not a huge fan of the genre, but I did enjoy trying a different author and writing style.

This summer I want to read books I have overlooked or never even considered. Win or lose, I'll have some new adventures in reading.

Books on my summer reading list (so far):

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer; Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey; Arcadia by Lauren Groff; Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky and Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles or a collection of his short stories, including The Playground.

Books/Authors for reading adventures

Science Fiction:

Frank Herbert (Dune); Philip Dick (Man in High Castle); Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game); David Brin (Earth - Uplift series); William Gibson (Necromancer); Neal Stephenson, Arthur C. Clarke, H.G. Wells and Ray Bradbury.

Fantasy:

George R.R. Martin (Games of Thrones); J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings triology); Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles).

Western:

Zane Grey (Riders of the Purple Sage); Louis L'Amour (The Quick and the Dead); Wallace Stegner (Angle of Repose and Big Rock Candy Mountain).

Non-fiction: 

United States of Arugula - Karp, David.

Free For All - Borchert, Don.

What Now? - Patchett, Ann.

Reading the OED - Shea, Ammon.

Things I've Learned from Women Who Dumped Me - Karlin, Ben.

How the States Got Their Shapes - Stein, Mark.

Immortal Milk: Adventures in Cheese - LeMay, Eric.

Every Silence Has An End - Betancourt, Ingrid.

All Facts Considered - Kee, Malesky.

365 Thank Yous - Kralik, John.

Uncommon Courtesy - Wood, Jennifer

Orchid Thief - Orlean, Susan

At Home - Bryson, Bill

Freakonomics - Levitt, Steven & Dubner, Stephen

Widow Cliquot - Mazzeo, Tilar

Eight Men Out - Asinof, Eliot

Fiction:

Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt - Preston, Caroline.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson, Robert Louis.

Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children - Riggs, Ransom.

Revenge of the Radioactive Lady - Stuckey-French, Elizabeth.

Fiction Class - Breen, Susan.

Shanghai Girls - See, Lisa.

How I Became a Famous Novelist - Hely, Steve.

Whiter Than Snow - Dallas, Sandra.

Weird Sisters - Brown, Eleanor.

Stiltsville - Daniel, Susanna.

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Ford, Jamie.

Homer and Langley - Doctorow, E.L.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Shaffer, Mary Ann & Barrows, Annie.

Try (very short) fiction with a twist:

Hint Fiction anthology - edited by Swartwood, Robert

Micro Fiction - edited by Stern, Jerome.

**Thanks to Gary, Maribel, Emily, and Pam for their suggestions.**

Dedicated to the memory of Ray Bradbury

1920-2012