What are you reading for fun?
Summer has begun, though you can’t tell if you live in the Northwest, and that brings out lots of talk about summer reading lists. Indeed, Relevant mag just published its list of “Top 10 Summer Books,” which it says are “guaranteed to entertain anyone hungry for an escape from the ordinary.” We talk a lot about “serious” books on this blog, but now I’m wondering if anyone is currently reading, or planning to read soon, a book “just for the fun of it.” (And, no, N. T. Wright does not count.) The two books I’ve just finished reading are Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (good) and Marilynne Robinson’s Home (outstanding). And, in the interests of pure escapism, I’m about to start the latest book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (until he died) and Brandon Sanderson, The Gathering Storm.
So, what’s on your list of fun literary diversions? Anything good?
In case, you’re interested, Relevant Magazine’s rather eclectic Top 10 included the following:
- Never Let Me Go—Kazuo Ishiguro
- The History of Love—Nicole Krauss
- The Millennium Trilogy—Stieg Larsson
- The Pride of Baghdad—Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon
- No Country for Old Men—Cormac McCarthy
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—J.K. Rowling
- The Plot Against America—Philip Roth
- The Stand—Stephen King
- Lonesome Dove—Larry McMurtry
- Godric—Frederick Buechner
Posted on June 22, 2010, in Misc. Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments.
scientia et sapientia 
I just finished reading the first Wheel of Time book. I really enjoyed it. I have to wait a while to start the next book because I need to get some more sleep!
It’s a great series. You might start to bog down in the middle as Jordan let things drag out a bit too much. But things start to pick up again after a while.
Which book is your favorite?
Without question the first one is my favorite. But, that’s partly because it was the first, and those are usually the most fun. You also get to read about the three main characters when they were still naive; they all get pretty jaded as the story moves along.
Beyond that, I’d have to go with Lord of Chaos. The ending of that one is riveting.
My “fun” reading just happens to be my reading for the Ware class. Luckily, I am enjoying it. Although I need someone to explain to me what Stanley Grenz is saying in his book, The Social God and the Relational Self.
I’m reading Alister McGrath’s book for children, “The Aedyn Chronicles” to my girls right now (James won’t sit in and listen since it doesn’t involve Batman). We are only about three chapters in, and right now it feels like a Narnia knock-off (gardens, portals, children at the professors house, etc.) The brother and sister who get transported are kind of like Mulder and Scully, in that one is a kind of skeptic/materialist and the other has eyes of faith. We’ll see where it goes. I want it to be good.
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