Summer 2016 Reading Ladder

Summer 2016 Reading Ladder – June 28th to August 30th

In Order of Least to Most Recent

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower– Stephen Chbosky (213 pages)
2. The Life of Pi- Yann Martel (356 pages)
3. Othello- William Shakespeare (154 pages)
4. A Doll’s House- Henrik Ibsen (106 pages)
5. The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho (177 pages)
6. The Wars- Timothy Findley (190 pages)
7. Night- Elie Wiesel (120 pages)
8. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas– John Boyne (244 pages)
9. The Poisonwood Bible– Barbra Kingsolver (546 pages)
10. A Thousand Splendid Suns– Khalid Hosseini (372 pages)
11. The Stone Angel– Margaret Laurence (328 pages)
12. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone– J. K. Rowling (223 pages)
13. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets– J. K. Rowling (251 pages)
14. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban– J. K. Rowling (317 pages)
15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire– J. K. Rowling (636 pages)
16. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix– J. K. Rowling (766 pages)
17. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince– J. K. Rowling (607 pages)
18. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows– J. K. Rowling (607 pages)
19. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child– J. K. Rowling (327 pages)
20. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them- J. K. Rowling (88 pages)
21. The Handmaid’s Tale– Margaret Atwood (311 pages)
22. Hamlet– William Shakespeare (337 pages)
23. Frankenstein– Mary Shelley (216 pages)
24. The Catcher in the Rye– J. D. Salinger (214 pages)
25. The Crucible– Arthur Miller (152 pages)
26. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child- J. K. Rowling (327 pages)

Total Pages Read: 8,185 pages total. /8 weeks of summer = 1,023 pages per week.  /7 days a week = approximately 146 pages per day.

My love of reading is boundless and intense, even overwhelming at times. Books are my safe haven, my passion. This summer, I began my reading rampage with The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which I have been meaning to read for a long time and which I thoroughly enjoyed. Midway through my list, I embarked on my yearly venture to reread the Harry Potter series, which were my favorite childhood books and will always be a part of who I am as a reader. This summer, the read-through of the Harry Potter series carried with it even more anticipation, because it had Harry Potter and the Cursed Child added to the end of it. Unlike last summer, when I endeavored to finish my required reads first, this year I decided to leave them near the end so as to keep them fresh in my mind for when school began. I prefer this method over finishing the required reads early on, because I found that reading them and doing the accompanying journal helped to reawaken my curiosity and thirst for meaning, which would be helpful come the beginning of school.

I am more than satisfied with what my reading rate turned out to be this summer. Traditionally, summers have been the time when I can forget about the rest of the world, dive into my books, and disappear into the world of words for two months. But this summer, I chose to do summer school so as to lighten the load for my Grade 12 year. That meant that I had a whole month devoted to school, where I couldn’t lose myself in my books- in fact, I barely had time to read all of July. I found that rather than hindering a number of books I could read this summer, my loss of July reading time made me all the more determined to make it up in August. I read constantly in August, exceeding my expectations for what I believed I could read in one month. I am both pleased and proud that despite summer school, I did not have to sacrifice too much reading, and that what I was forced to give up in July I more than made up for in August. All things taken into account, I would consider this summer’s readings to be a success, as I got through all the books I had wanted to and more.

Top 3 Books: Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), The Poisonwood Bible (Barbra Kingsolver), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (J. K. Rowling).

• Frankenstein: Frankenstein has become one of my all-time favorite books. Shelley’s writing style was captivating and layered with meaning, drawing me in with the storyline, the descriptions, the symbolism, and the multi-faceted narrations. I was genuinely surprised by my love of this book because when I read it the first time last year, I was not nearly so drawn by the story and was not entranced by it the way I was with this read through. That, to me, is proof that with some of the more complex pieces of literature out there, it takes time to fully comprehend the true and multiple meanings of the text. The next time I reread Frankenstein, I have no doubt that my love for and understanding of the book will increase all the more. I would even go so far as to say that this is my second favorite book ever, after The Stone Angel. I only wish that there would have been some content in the book explaining the fate of Ernest, Victor’s remaining brother; he, too, would have lost his entire family and would have been abandoned by Victor when he left to pursue the monster. I would have been curious to know what happened to him.
• The Poisonwood Bible: I was astonished by how captivating this book was- it’s one of those rare stories that is so incredible that you can’t help staying up all night reading. It can be considered a story about family; through the alternating perspectives of Orleanna Price and her four daughters as they live in the late 1950s Congo, we see through powerless eyes the misogynistic Nathan Price (their father and Orleanna’s husband). Both emotionally and physically abusive, he is a man that is fanatic, self-righteous, obsessive, and has a stubborn refusal to understand any perspective that does not align with his own. Through the five victims of Nathan Price’s monumental ego, we can see as their characters mature and develop into very diverse people, each affected by these events in differing ways. The detail of this book- in terms of background, specifications, and description- is what captivated me. It made the story real and pulled me into the action. It is a powerful and emotionally resonant novel that I will never forget because it speaks such volumes of truth that it was a phenomenal read.
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: I cannot make up my mind as to whether I love or hate this play. Yet here it is on my top three list- not because it is a favorite of mine but because it had an impact on me. Part of me feels as though this eighth installment did not do the series justice; the majority of the plot seemed loose and unrealistic until the climax. I’ve been worried that Cursed Child would ruin my perception of the first seven books, which I love more than words can say. More than anything else, I’ve just been confused by this story, and by its implications. So many things in this book contradicted what I believed about the characters and their motivations, but at the same time, I feel that I have learned more about who they really are. I like hat family dynamics were explored and that inter-house unity became a possibility for the first time in the series, and I appreciated the opportunity to dive back into this world that I love more than my own. I can also appreciate that the written version of the play will never truly do justice to seeing it on stage, the way plays are meant to be seen. In short, I am both disappointed and elated by Cursed Child, and I am certain that it will take several more read-throughs before I can formulate a solid conclusion as to my opinion on the piece.

Goals for the next term: I will get through all of the required readings for Advanced Placement English, and in addition at least seven novels, two plays, and two short stories by the end of Term 1. These novels, short stories, and plays may be selected as the term progresses or may be chosen from the following list: I Am Malala (Malala Yousafzai), The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini), Anthony and Cleopatra (William Shakespeare), The Bean Trees (Barbra Kingsolver), All The Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr), Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad), Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain), The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte), Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury), Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain), The Hero’s Walk (Anita Badami), Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), The Tempest (William Shakespeare), The Cellist of Sarajevo (Stephen Gallaway), The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (James Thurber), On a Rainy River (Tim O’Brien), The Glass Roses (Aldan Nowlan), Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe), Flowers in the Attic Series (V. C. Andrews), Shawshank Redemption (Stephen King), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey), and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon).