Thoughts on books

I ordered a plethora of books for my summer reading pleasure. I can't WAIT to read for fun again. Among the growing stack are novels that I may use in the my Fall Novel class, some of which I've read and some I have not (Bronte's Jane Eyre, Chopin's The Awakening, Macleod's No Great Mischief, Kerouac's On the Road, Achebe's Things Fall Apart, McEwan's Atonement, O'Brien's The Things They Carried).

However, I could not resist peeking at Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself. Bryson is well-known as a travel writer and I've read two of his other books: Notes from a Small Island (about living and traveling in England) and A Walk Through the Woods (about hiking the Appalachian Trail). I was hooked as soon as I read Notes. I devoured A Walk.

It was with some glee that I ripped open the Amazon.com box last night to see my new treasures. I must give myself some credit that I was able to put off reading until late this morning; however, with grading of 1102 online essays looming over me, I was only going to indulge in a short reading of, say, the first paragraph. By noon today, I had read 1/2 the book. SO much for savoring it for later.

I've decided to adopt this book as part of this class for fall.