A Light Summer of Shopping

I started the summer by finishing up The Fountainhead by Ayn Rynd, which I absolutely loved but it's not much of an entertaining beach novel although still very enjoyable. So after the philosphies of Ayn Rynd, I rummaged through my older sister's book shelves for something to read during the long grueling hours I spent working at a horse racing track five days a week. I could usually slip in about two hours of reading as I waited for my regular customers to want their beer and hot dogs. My customers consisted mostly of older men, who would constantly recommend novels to read in between making their bets for the next race. One would probably not believe that these gambling addicts would also be the readers of Harry Potter, but one guy and his father in particular greatly anticipated with me the release of the sixth book in July.
However, before Harry Potter had been released with the recommendations of my sister I began a different series, known as the Shopaholic series. Now, with the start of the first novel The Confessions of A Shopaholic, I completely hated the character of Becky Bloomwood, and was very disappointed in my sister. How could she possibly find these books entertaining? Becky was a shopaholic and quite annoying. Thousands of pounds in debt, and she would still shop. I really just wanted her to stop. Well by the end of this first book, although at times grueling to get through, I began, too, to like Becky. I therefore moved onto the second book, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, which takes Becky out of London and puts her in New York City. Then, skipping the third book in the series, I moved onto Shopaholic and Sister, not very stimulating but always entertaining. I took on a load of lighter books this summer that really contained no aesthetic value, yet the series did provide me with a good deal of English humor as I served beer and food for six hours a day.

Oh Summertime Reading

After reading so much during the fall and spring semesters,I often find myself at a loss as to what to read in the summer time--not this summer however particularly because of a shortage of time. Equally unusually, a lot of what I read was non-fiction. My dad loves books and has a huge collection--there are more bookcases than any other type of furniture in our house and every one of them is filled. Most of the time, I don't bother going to a bookstore or the library--I can pick something new off the shelves--and that is where I found most of this summer's reading.

In June 2005, I read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. This particular book is the non-fiction report of a Hmong family which, due to turmoil in their own country, suddenly moved to the United States. Their daughter, I think it was the youngest, developed a condition that caused her to have seizures. Due to cultural differences, the doctor's and Lia's parents could not relate or communicate well with each other and as a result, Lia suffered. My dad, a medical director at Carefirst, recommended this book to me because I am applying to graduate school for health communications and researching health discrepancies is my main area of interest. This particular book was fantastic because it wasn't one-sided--Fadiman did not condemn the family nor the doctors for the fate of Lia, but objectively explained how and why it was caused by a (preventable with societal awareness) cultural collision. Reading and writing about health related topics are my passion so I could go on forever about this book, but I won't. :-)

That month I also read (on dad's say-so)The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey and Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice by Donald Asher. The first was a waste of time--all the habits were those which everyone all KNOWS they should do, but just don't due to laziness. The second book gave me some good tips, but not really anything I didn't already know. I'm hoping I can go to my professors for more assistance... Oh, and I read The Runner's Handbook By Bob Glover because I wish I knew how to run. After reading it, I still wish I knew how to run. I decided I should write a how-to book--sell some common sense for the low price of $12.99.

In July, I read the Invisible Man again. My brother was assigned the book for summer reading and the first time I read it back in high school, I finished it a bit confused. As an African American, I found the themes hitting home (often comparing events in the novel to things my parents went through) and because I understood everything that was going on this time around, it was kind of unnerving and a little scary. Glad I re-read it though.

The only other books I read in July, besides Harry Potter and some of my books for this course, were what I call my summer fluff...even though they aren't that fluffy; Abduction by Robin Cooks (I love medical thrillers) and King of Torts by John Grisham. I definitely liked them both.
I worked a lot this summer, so that's about all I had the time to read. If anyone has any good suggestions for fiction books (preferably ones with lots of detail), let me know--I'm running out of material from my favorite authors and need to find some new ones.

Subway reading in Barcelona

Just to get things started, here's a bit of "what I did over the summer"--in Barcelona, Spain (go if you ever get a chance), I was stunned to see this vending machine on a subway platform.

What does it say about Spain--or the U.S., for that matter? Note: no bodice-rippers these. The glare (and photo size) make the titles almost impossible to read, but trust me, they include 4 novels by Mario Vargas Llosa and several by 1998 Nobel laureate Jose Saramago. I think there were some philosophical works in there as well. Perhaps Vargas Llosa, read here in college classrooms and coffeehouses, is actually a popular author over there. (Do they think of Tom Clancy or Dan Brown as "foreign literature"?) Or perhaps it really just shows how anti-intellectual we are over here.

On a related note, I heard on the radio recently that three of the top five books most requested by prisoners in Guantanamo were the Koran, The Da Vinci Code, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.