The high temperature today here in St. Louis is supposed to hit 90, with mid to high 80s forecast for the next week. Summer is setting in, and it’s time to begin lining up summer reading choices.
Matthew Irwin of the Santa Fe Reporter offers up his choices in SFR’s incomplete and totally biased guide to summer reading. He encourages readers to take a chance and try reading outside of their comfort zones. I especially like his concept of developing a personal reading canon:
I read once that Jorge Luis Borges’ father introduced him to the library, saying that it didn’t matter what he read as long as he kept reading. I began to imagine a world in which each reader creates a personal canon, one that speaks to his experiences and helps him navigate life’s questions, rather than a universal canon that makes those of us who don’t fall in line feel like we’re falling behind. This isn’t to say that we should ignore the canon altogether, but rather that we should be like Borges and allow the books to choose us. But we need to make ourselves available by picking the books up.
What’s on your summer reading list? And do you have a personal canon?
