Wednesday, June 22, 2016



It's Summer Reading Time!

My regular blog followers know that I choose a reading theme each summer.  Last year, I chose pairs of books that were related in some way: Middlemarch and My Life in Middlemarch, Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye and My Salinger Year, and Wiesel's Night, Dawn and Day.  One summer I chose Russian authors (Dear, cheerful Dostoevsky is my favorite.) and another summer I read the entire collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. (Ask my husband how much he enjoyed that summer, as I was so excited by Sir C. D. that I read The Adventure of the Speckled Band aloud to him!)
This year's summer theme is an unusual one for me.  I will read one, huge, glorious book, 
A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth, all 1474 pages of it!  I wish you had a picture of my face when the mail carrier delivered it.  (I thought perhaps the package contained two or three books, not just one.)  
The idea for this summer's big read came from Stephen King, mentioned in his book On Writing.  On Writing is an interesting, informative page-turner which includes a list of books that King enjoyed during the three years prior to his book's publication.  King also mentioned two epic novels that he thought were worth a read: M.M. Kaye's The Far Paviliions, which I had read twice and absolutely loved, and Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, which I had not read.  So here I go!  I'm on page 45 and I can't put the book down.  I will now happily spend my summer in India with Rupa and Lata and Savita...and a cast of characters yet to be introduced.  Check back with me in September for a final report!