I'm a bit of a bookworm...

With one month of summer to go, I suddenly realized that I hadn't read anything at all (other than Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at the beginning of the summer!) so I rushed to get some books from the library and have been reading ever since!

>> The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I loved her poetry in school, and my senior-year English teacher (one of the most inspiring teachers I've had) realized that. She let me borrow the book towards the end of the school year, but I was never able to complete it since I had to return it. A couple of years have passed and I checked it out again now in the hopes of finishing what I started.

>> The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook. (Edit: I'm about 50% done with this. It would probably make a good movie, contrary to what I said below. Hypocritical me! The plotline develops realistically and it's all about self-empowerment, so I approve.) To be honest, I'm secretly hoping that this is similar to The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. I'm a sucker for the whole friends-growing-together sap of chick novels... not so much movies, though. That's probably why I checked out this next book,

>> Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares. It's the only one I've completed so far. I checked it out mainly because of curiosity, since I didn't understand why the author would choose to resurrect the characters after so many years. I have to admit, I liked the series when I was growing up. However, this one was a little too sappy for me. And I felt like my image of the characters were ruined, because I had already imagined a future for them. It was also a little too unrealistic since most of the characters were still with the men they fell in love with at age 16; but that might just be me. I think this one would've been best if I had not read it at all. This one and the last one are pretty good for simple beach reads, though.
>> The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I'm one of the only people to have never read this book, but after hearing almost exclusively positive reviews about it, I chose to check it out. I wish I had more time, but I will probably not get to finish reading this book by the end of the month. :(

This summer, my book-reading theme seems to be all the teen novels I've totally missed out on! What's on your reading list this summer?
<3 Linda

Things I Love Tuesday: Books

Hello everyone! Not every T.I.L.T. of mine is going to be themed, but I found so many book-related things that I like that I decided to throw them all into a single post!

1. Shelfari is a great site if you want to keep track of which books you've read, are reading, and plan to read in the future. How many times have you been in the middle of a book when you suddenly realize that you've read the book before? It's sometimes really hard to keep track of which books I've read, so I like to use Shelfari to keep my affairs in order. My account's private for the most part, but you can also use the site to socialize and find people who have similar reading tastes, as well as to write reviews about books you loved or hated. I also like it because I can properly answer the question, "What are some of your favorite books?" by just pulling it up from the website.

2. Woody Allen shares his top 5 books. #1 does not surprise me at all. A lot of people list it as their favorite book, but I have yet to read it!

3. Literature.org is officially my favorite summer site. It has several classics online, including my go-to book, The Count of Monte Cristo. I love the look and feel of a real book, but since I spend a lot of time online, it's convenient and easy to access. I like that each chapter has its own link; that way I can pace myself and have a goal of steadily reading a chapter a day. Keeping it to this schedule works out great if you have little time on your hands! That way you can prevent yourself from being sucked into a book for hours on end, shirking everything you need to do (which I admit, I have been guilty of!). I recently used this website to read the classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and loved the book's wordplay. Let me know if you've read it before!

4. This image (created by Poorlydrawnlines) always makes me giggle! I remain undecided on the issue.

5. The next few things on my reading list: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Wasteland, both by T. S. Eliot. I also plan on reading Labyrinths, if I can get my hands on a copy. Daniel Radcliffe recently recommended it in an issue of Oprah, and this excerpt immediately caught my interest:

[In] "The Library of Babel" ("Borges proves that if you can write a story in ten pages, it doesn't need to be any longer"), he imagines an infinite library filled with every book written, not yet written, and every combination of words and letters in between. "The premise is that contained somewhere in these books is the meaning of life. So cults develop that walk through the library searching for it. The fact that Borges could start with such an idea—an infinite library, what would that involve?—and then take it to a logical conclusion is remarkable."

An infinite library? Sounds good to me. 

What are you planning to read this summer?

<3 Linda