Summer Reading

Barnes and Noble booksellers always put out a Summer Reading table every year around this time. Every summer I realize I've read a few of them while quite a few others I have not read. This is good, though. I personally believe one should read what they want to read when they want to read it. A summer reading table is a fantastic idea! If I were to make it my goal to eventually read every title on the table, though, it seems as if I'd be paying too much attention to what other people think I should read in comparison to choosing, and thinking, for myself. Pick and choose. Read what you want! Then pick and choose some more. Having said this, here is fifty book I've greatly enjoyed over the last five years or so. I don't expect you to read them all (or any for that matter since it's totally your decision). I thought maybe one or two of the titles might catch your interest and then you'll pick up the book for yourself and find that you greatly enjoyed it. If I can help you find what is in my mind a great book then this blog has served its purpose.
The list is as follows:

1. Everything I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (Robert Fulghum)

2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey)

3. The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis) (Read all seven if you read even one. They're worth the time!)

4. Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 (Garrison Keillor)

5. The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

6. Something Wicked this Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)

7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)

8. James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl)

9. The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)

10. Big Fish (Daniel Wallace)

11. High Fidelity (Nick Hornby)

12. Ray in Reverse (Daniel Wallace)

13. The Giver (Lois Lowry)

14. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (Sherman Alexie)

15. A Long Way Down (Nick Hornby)

16. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)

17. Teacher Man (Frank McCourt)

18. Our Town (Thornton Wilder)

19. Bagombo Snuff Box (Kurt Vonnegut)

20. Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)

21. Dandelion Wine (Ray Bradbury)

22. Farewell Summer (Ray Bradbury)

23. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)

24. Beowulf

25. Travels with Charley- In Search of America (John Steinbeck)

26. Biloxi Blues (Neil Simon)

27. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)

28. The Great Divorce (C. S. Lewis)

29. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

30. About a Boy (Nick Hornby)

31. Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician (Daniel Wallace)

32. The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K. LeGuin)

33. I am Legend (Richard Matheson)

34. Y The Last Man (Brian K. Vaughan) (This comic has ten trade paperbacks. If you read the first you'll probably want to read the other nine!)

35. Great Dream of Heaven (Sam Shepard)

36. Now and Forever (Ray Bradbury)

37. The Clown in the Belfry (Frederick Buechner)

38. Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman)

39. The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)

40. Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller)

41. A Good Man is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor)

42. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)

43. Survivor (Chuck Palahniuk)

44. The Road (Cormac McCarthy)

45. The Wrecking Yard (Pinckney Benedict)

46. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)

47. Nine Horses (Billy Collins)

48. Through Painted Deserts (Donald Miller)

49. tuesdays with morrie (Mitch Albom)

50. Fables for Our Time (James Thurber)

If you decide to read one of these you haven't read, and happen to enjoy it, it would mean a great deal to me to hear about your enjoyment of the book.