Carpe Libris: The Summer of My Content Edition

The disbelief began when I mentioned I wouldn't be buying any books this summer.  The horror set in when I added I wouldn't be going to the library either.  My friends, both those who share my addiction to books and those who have enabled me in the past,were worried.  My health and my sanity were questioned.  Until I explained that this is the summer I plan on reading only books I already own.

The see for this idea started a few weeks ago when I was looking for a book I knew I owned and couldn't find.  Was in the basement with my Celtic spirituality collection?  Or upstairs on the travel shelves?  Or maybe it was in the British Isles history section.  As I pulled out books to look behind and in between stacks, I didn't find what I was looking for but I did find a lot of books I've never read.

"This looks interesting," I thought pulling out a travel narrative written by a poet I picked up in Wales last year and placing it on my bed.  (Just to clarify-- I picked up the book in Wales, not the poet.  As I re-read that I realized it sounded a bit racier an anecdote than it actually was.)  Soon the unopened green paperback was joined by a well worn copy of To the Lighthouse which I've been meaning to re-read.  And then there was the young adult novel written by a friend.  A coming of age mystery set in the Maritime provinces, it looked like good summer reading.  And how many times over the past two decades have I paged through Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses and not read the whole thing, cover to cover?  On to the bed it went.  By the time I found the book I was looking for (already in a "to read" stack of books I put by my bed from last year) I had over a dozen volumes in my summer reading pile.

The next day I reclaimed my old Kindle paper white from father, who has given up reading himself in favor of being read to.  With the arrival of warmer weather, most weekends at some point I head out to the backyard with a blanket and a book to lounge under the maple tree to read for a couple hours.  This year, however I discovered that I needed both sunglasses and reading glasses.  I love real books but two benefits to e-readers are being able to carry a library's worth of books with me at all times and adjustable print size.  I switched the registration back on the old Kindle to my Amazon account and as the archives updated I discovered I had over 400 unread books ready to be downloaded.  I was  somewhat restrained and chose only two dozen to add to my potential summer reading list.

So what all that means for you, dear readers, is that it's time for another edition of Carpe Libris.  We'll see how much space I've made on my shelves-- both read and virtual-- by the end of the summer when I update you on what I actually read but until then, here's a taste of what I plan on reading in the upcoming months.

Clementine in the Kitchen
There's something about summer that makes me want to read food writing, especially tales of food in foreign lands.  The Modern Library Food Series offers ten selections chosen by former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl.  Part memoir, part history, part cookbook, Clementine in the Kitchen follows the story of a family from pre-WWII France to Massachusetts where their cook, Clementine, tries to introduce Yankees to the delights of French cooking long before anyone outside the OSS had heard of Julia Child.  If I find myself still hungry for more food writing this summer, I may move onto a couple other books from the series-- High Bonnet if I'm in the mood for a novel or The Supper of the Lamb for a more spiritual take on the art of cooking and eating.

Summer is always a great time for a compelling page turner.  I first heard about The Luminaries last year when it was short-listed for the Man Booker prize, an

award it went on to win.  Critics loved it for its form and style.  The idea of a modern twist on a Victorian novel is right up my alley.  Set in New Zealand during the gold rush, the story begins on the proverbial dark and stormy night when a stranger arrives in town and stumbles into a mysterious gathering.  With mysteries, conspiracies, a complex cast of characters, and a promised ghost story in the mix, I'm saving this one for August to get me out of the post-holiday slump that always happens when I return home after a trip.

And speaking of vacation, In mid-July I'm heading to New England with a friend for a driving holiday around Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine.  In preparation for our travels I've already begun reading a ton of Thoreau (Walking, The Maine Woods, Wild Apples, and of course, Walden) as well as Nathaniel Philbrick's history of Nantucket Away Off Shore.  While away I may dip into Edith Wharton's Summer but more likely I'll want some light reading so I think E F Benson's Miss Mapp and Queen Lucia will provide plenty of light-hearted entertainment for evenings when we're too stuffed with Lobster rolls and blueberries to do much else but lounge around a quaint inn and read.

And while I may break out the traditional Mary Poppins at some point, after my White Queen experience a couple weeks ago, this is the summer I will finally read for myself Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.  Who knows, perhaps I'll find more spiritual wisdom from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson among the words of Lewis Carroll.  At the very least it will allow me to exorcise the Disney images I have of Alice and friends and allow me to form visions of my own.

So that's a sample of what's on my reading list for the summer.  Let me know what literary treats you're planning on consuming this season!