Five Books For Summer Reading
Joshua April 4th, 2010
There is nothing I like to do in the summer as much as relaxing under a tree and reading a book(I lied, i’d rather sing and play guitar). The following are five books worth reading this summer.
Forget about the plot, The Sorrows of Young Werther is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. Goethe’s phrasing and word choice is so inspiring I often find myself opening the book to a random page and absorbing the words.
Animal Farm shows us just how wicked the world can be. How greed and selfishness lead us nowhere and how we are all doomed. Well maybe it’s not that cynical but it does show us how potential ignorance and indifference to problems within a revolution could allow horrors to happen if smooth transition to a people’s government isn’t satisfied.
What can I say about On the Road that hasn’t already been said? This book taught me that being myself was ok. This world is large and filled with so many different people and opportunities and that no matter how odd or different I felt, somebody else is out there feeling the same things.
A book that at one time was banned and burned, Catcher in the Rye, is now common place in High School literature classes. The book follows Holden through a series of events over the span of two days in New York City. The book is written as if Holden were speaking out loud, like a transcription of him telling the story to another person.
Charles Bukowski has a way of telling a story in as few as fifty words. This book of poetry is filled with short little tales and poems about drunk’s and whores. Open to any page and you’ll instantly be hooked.
I enjoy the simplicity of Buk’s poems. Simple words.