This summer, infinitesummer.org is challenging readers to take on David Foster Wallace’s gargantuan opus Infinite Jest. The project got us thinking about other ways to theme-itize our summer reading.
1. Summer of Roy G. Biv – Start with a book with a red (or hot pink, it’s close enough) jacket, and work your way through the color spectrum. Our Flavorpill-approved reading rainbow: Hot House Flower and the 9 Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin, And Then There’s This by Bill Wasik, Unplugging Philco by Jim Knipfel, Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre, The Song Is You by Arthur Phillips (OK, so the cover’s black and white, but the spine fits!), My Soul to Take by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, and The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton.
2. Summer of Wives and Daughters – Doesn’t it seem like you can’t walk into a bookstore without spotting a novel called The ___’s Wife or The ___’s Daughter. Spend your summer celebrating matrilineage. Start with The Time Traveler’s Wife , move on to The Heretic’s Daughter , cuddle up to The 19th Wife , and go from there.
3. Retro Summer – This list include books you loved as a child (Harriet the Spy), books that got you through high school (The Catcher in the Rye), and books you were supposed to read in college but never got around to ( Middlemarch ). Repeat until you feel sufficiently nostalgic and/or pretentious.
So what do you say, will you be taking our suggestions or covertly reading the Twilight series?