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My Summer Reading List

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Summer Reading: What I'm Packing for California!
Summer Reading: What I’m Packing for California

It’s mid-August already and it seems that Scotland has already had the best of its summer weather.

However, on Monday I’m off to California for 3 weeks and the valley gets hot hot hot. Right now it’s in the region of 40C / 100F.

With that in mind I’ve been out buying t-shirts and lighter layers to save myself from 20 days of the same orange t-shirt and my only well-fitting pair of shorts… and that gave me some thinking time to decide what I’ll be reading on my trip.

I’m not big on your typical summer reading beach reads – but I do have some tips for you today.

 

In Progress 

Having a Kindle makes bringing books almost superfluous, but I will be bringing 2: Homer’s The Odyssey and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. I’m reading these throughout the month as part of a Classical Literature Readalong. I’m pretty far behind already but will catch up once I’m settled there.

I’m also currently reading The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman for #NudgeYourWorld – for which I’ve been flitting between audiobook and physical. It’s a great audiobook – Oliver Burkeman narrates – but being able to go back to the paperback copy is great for note-taking purposes.

 

For the Journey

Apart from the above, I have another novel on the go which I’m looking forward to digging into on the plane: Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

I’ve read a few chapters and am really enjoying it so far, but between all the assigned reading I have on and wanting to save it for the journey, I imagine I’ll get through most if not all of it by wheels down Monday evening.

I’m also a voracious iPad reader – as you’ll know if you’ve ever taken a look at Reading Week (subscribe here!).

First up for the iPad, I have a New Yorker subscription with the latest issues downloaded. The New Yorker archive is open for the summer months, so I’ve also saved a bunch of profiles and longform articles to Pocket (my read it later app of choice) to work my way through.

Another subscription service I have and need to get a move on reading more from is The Atavist. It’s longform journalism – the kind of thing you’d download as a Kindle Single – carefully curated and beautifully presented. The latest story is A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite.

After that I’ll be scouring the rest of my Pocket haul, which mostly consists of links I’ve picked up via Twitter and haven’t gotten around to reading yet.

 

On Deck

And when I arrive? Well, I’m not entirely sure yet… but these are all on my Kindle waiting to go:

In fiction:

  • Trilobites and Other Stories by Breece Pancake
  • Friendship by Emily Gould
  • This One is Mine by Maria Semple

 

In non-fiction:

  • The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
  • While Girls by Hilton Als

 

While I’m there, I also hope to pick up a copy of Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, which came out this week. I’ll try to make it my honest book purchase of the trip. Honest.

 

What are you reading this summer?

#NudgeYourWorld – I’m Canongate’s Guinea Pig!

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Recently Canongate Books put a call out for literary guinea pigs for a new project called #NudgeYourWorld.

I volunteered.

 

 

The eminent playwright Sir Tom Stoppard once said that the right words, in the right order, can nudge your world a little.

This is the thinking behind Canongate’s bookish experiment – #NudgeYourWorld.

 

Each month, they are picking one book and sharing its lessons – then it’s up to us to try to apply its wisdom to our daily lives.

I’m participating in #NudgeYourWorld – a project which encourages readers to apply the wisdom of selected books into their day-to-day lives.

The first literary guinea pig for the project was Milo McLaughlin, who explored Edward Slingerland’s paradoxical Trying not to Try. He did really rather well with it.

Now it’s my turn, and I’ll be reading and living by The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman.

Over the next 7 days, I’ll be reading Oliver’s antidote to self-help and the cult of positive thinking in his book which is dubbed, happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking”.

Here’s the book trailer for more on the book.

 

 

Keep up with BEDA to learn how I get on!

Have you read a book that changed your life?

August Updates | BEDA Day 2

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It’s a big month!

I make a quick  video with updates about…

  1. My book giveaway for Fan Phenomena: The Hunger Games
  2. BEDA – where you can find me (mostly here, that is!)
  3. My August TBR – in case you’re curious, and
  4. A reminder about the #classicalreadalong.

Anything to add? Drop me a comment below or in the video comments!

Til tomorrow x