June 14, 2005

Summer Reading

School (and graduation!) is over with and summer has officially begun. You may have noticed that I’ve taken a couple of weeks off to clear my head, relax, and celebrate. Now I’m finally ready to attack the backlog of reading that has been piling up for the past two years. So here they are in no particular order (other than Grapes of Wrath being up first):

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  I know, I should have read this in high school, but we read “The Pearl” and “Of Mice and Men.” I got about a third of the way in over winter break so I’ve got a head start.
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
  This looks really interesting.
• The Ramayana translated by R.K. Narayan
  I was supposed to have read this for an undergrad course on India. So now, seven years later…
• The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin
  Should be an enjoyable light read.
• Leonardo’s Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies by Ben Shneiderman
  Looking for inspiration…
• Sacred Monsters Sacred Masters by John Richardson
  A collection of essays on art world figures from the past century. I read a couple of chapters a few years ago and got sidetracked. One of the ones I read is on Albert Barnes whose art collection has been the subject of much debate recently.
• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
  This has been sitting around for awhile too. Ben Franklin pops up everywhere here in Philly so I thought it’d be fun to know a little more about him.

That’s all for now. Comments/suggestions are appreciated. Watch for progress reports.

UPDATE 7/1/2005

One more for the list…

• A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
  I’ve been meaning to read one of Hornby’s books for awhile. Figured I should get to this one quick before it becomes a movie.