Once upon my dystopian summer

Leila has posted an amazing looking list over at her blog of ya dystopian books to read post-Mockingjay. Reading through it, I found that I haven't read most of these books, much less heard of them. The rock I've been spending my "free" time under had been particularly solid lately.

As I picked up Mockingjay at the NYPL this afternoon, I'll have to hold off new books until after I've had a chance to find out how this trilogy ends. (Will Katniss become the figurehead of District 13? Does President Snow really drink the blood of babies? Does Peeta survive? Will the drinking game--via Forever Young Adult--enhance the book or just ensure that I'm dehydrated?) I'm not going to let myself read it until the weekend, which will hopefully be nice and sunny (Hurricane Earl, if you're listening, please go away by Saturday night) so I can sit outside and enjoy the end of my summer.

*Update: I picked up Girl in the Arena last night at B&N. It was interesting...not quite what I expected though. Review to come.

Top 100 Science Fiction Novels according to Sci-Fi Lists

Well, according to this list, I am not a well-read science fiction fan as I've only read fourteen of the hundred listed titles. And even if I crossed off the two books I started and hated (The Handmaiden's Tale and A Canticle for Leibowitz), my stats aren't much better.

Guess I know what I'm doing for the rest of the summer. You know, when I'm not rereading the Harry Potter series (WHICH ENDS JULY 31ST, SELF!), the military nonfiction titles I have stacked on the floor, or the YA books I keep requesting from the library.

So yeah, I'm sure I'll make it to fifteen out of ninety-eight in no time at all.

/sarcasm

Summer reading

I love reading the summer reading lists; so many new books to get excited over. Like:

Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures by Robert Wittman (Crown)

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (Doubleday)

Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross (Knopf)

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt (Hyperion)

The Outlander by Gil Adamson (Harper Perennial)

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)

Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac (Penguin) (OK, so this one isn't exactly new, but whatever.)

In addition to keeping track of what genre I read and whether the book is one I purchased or borrowed, I'm also going to try and keep track of what publishers I'm reading. I don't think I have any favorites, but I am curious.

*Note to self: Hey, remember how you were going to reread the Harry Potter series this year? How's that going?

Quickly

I cannot believe I jammed my finger again by playing (touch) rugby. Seriously, you'd have thought I had learned my lesson last time. (Sadly, I didn't. Maybe this time the lesson will stick.)

I used to love, love, love mysteries when I was younger; I devoured them, reading them through as quickly as I could before moving on to the next one. I used to hand them to my mother was done; I turned her on to A.E. Maxwell and J.A. Jance that way. Sadly, as I grew older, I became less interested in mysteries and turned towards science fiction; I can't figure out why. Is it because the mystery plots became outlandish or because after a while, they all sort of seemed the same? (Hmm, I think I answered my own question there.)

And now, science fiction is leaving me bored and I'm hunting for new things to read. Cycles, gotta love them. In an effort to inspire myself, reading wise, I've turned back to mysteries... and I really mean back. I'm going to read all the classics, things I've never read but should have, like Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple Series." (I don't think I'll read the other ones, featuring the french detective; he leaves me cold. Kind of like the guy on "Law & Order: CI." You know the one I mean, the white, brown-haired detective who ALWAYS figures it out. I don't like that character.)

Anyway... as I mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of the "Miss Marple Mysteries" on PBS and when I realized I had hit another reading rut, I thought why not read those books? True, I'll know how some of them are going to end, but there have been enough changes in the televisionization of the novels that even knowing whodunnit, it'll still be a new story to me. I'm starting with Murder at the Vicarage and Why Didn't They Ask Evans?. I also picked up a non-Marple book, The A.B.C. Murders. Hopefully they'll keep me occupied for a week, which is what I need, since I'm going home to visit family for two weeks after that.

(Note to self: Tap & Gown should be bought, and soon!)

Well, damn. Looks like I'm a liar, because The A.B.C. Murders features that french detective guy. Now what do I do? Suck it up and read the book anyway, or return the book unread because the french detective guy pisses me off?

(Yes, I know that the french detective guy's name is actually Hercule Poirot. I just like my way of naming better.)