Twenty Years of Summer Reading!

When people ask me what I have been doing all summer, I sometimes answer, “reading!” Although that response is not complete, it is truthful. Summer reading is one of my favorite parts of the break. In June 1995, the Deerfield High School English resource center (the WERCS) had a summer reading program that asked students and staff to provide a description, response, and some basic information about the books we read over the summer. Then we got a t-shirt. I still have the T-shirt!

The writing I did for that program was the beginning of my reading journal. Although the summer reading program did not reappear the next year, I continued to write about the books I read. I have written several hundred entries in my journal over the past twenty years.

The second book I wrote about is one that has stuck with me: Microserfs by Douglas Coupland in which I finally learned the difference between a geek and a nerd. After I read Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher, I felt like I had to share it with my students. As the father of a very young daughter, it was a particularly personal for me.

Since I started my reading journal in 1995, many of my entries are rereads. Some I read when I was young, some I reread and wrote multiple entries. A few times I read different versions of the same book, as I did with one of my favorites, A Stranger in A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.

I did a considerable amount of teacher reading too. I found Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards to be challenging. It made me reflect on many of my grading and evaluation practices. Vivian Paley’s You Can’t Say You Can’t Play affected me both as a parent and a teacher. I never thought grammar would be an interesting read, but Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing, was so engaging that I shared it with my students.

My book journal chronicles my research into vegetarianism. Although it was the famous Animal Liberation by Peter Singer that launched my change of eating, I read everything from John Robbins’ Diet for A New America to collections from the editors of Vegetarian Times to books exploring what it mean to raise children in a meatless household.  

Many books in my journal were recommended by students. One young woman insisted I read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and another assigned me Jane Yolen’s version of Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose.  One student gave me a great gift and introduced me to Neil Gaiman! 

I read travel books preparing to go overseas. I read plays, anthologies of short stories, and historical fiction. I discovered an interest in the Civil War thanks to Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels.  I read best sellers and obscure titles, biography, graphic novels, and collections of essays.  Shakespeare, avant-garde works, religious texts, and instructional works also make regular appearances in my journal. I have already written lists of my favorites, so I will not repeat that here.

Recently, I have been reading books with my outstanding science fiction book club. Each summer, I read books nominated for the Hugo awards. All of the Harry Potter books are in my reading journal, too, thanks to my son who insisted I read them right after he did. As a teacher, I have read plenty of young adult novels.

This summer, I read several Hugo nominees, books about college and teaching, a fascinating book on race, and some travel books! Although I read all year round, summer reading continues to be a very special literary vacation!