Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Recreational reading for 2014.
Since starting grad school I have fallen seriously out of practice with recreational reading. So out of practice that recently for a “light read” I picked up Albert Camus’ The Plague – an existential novel about a town quarantined due to the plague which serves as an allegory for all of life in the shadow of the certain death we all face. Yup. That’s some light reading right there.
It’s not like I have a bunch of fiction sitting on my “to-read” pile right now either. I stopped purchasing reading material some time ago in deference to the public library (cheaper! awesome selection! less wasteful!) – but school keeps getting in the way and, I have returned almost all my “fun” reading to the library on its return date, unread.
Thus it appears that I need to re-arm my personal library if I am to get any recreational reading in over the next semester of school. I feel out of touch on the fiction front these days but after asking my Facebook posse this is the list of books I’ve decided to read over the next couple of months:
- Wild, Cheryl Strayed (I started this Thursday and am loving it).
- A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
- The Orenda, Joseph Boyden
- The Luminaries, Elaine Catton
- Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver
- We are Water, Wally Lamb
- Tomato Red, Daniel Woodrell
- Longbourn, Jo Baker
- The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
- The Circle, Dave Eggers
- Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
This list alone is one of the reasons I am glad not to be entering into sixty-hour weeks in 2014! The best thing about lapsing on the reading front is that now there are so many great books waiting for me. So although it is too early for new year’s resolutions – this list stands as some kind of commitment to myself, and my need for good literature in my life always.
3 Comments on “Recreational reading for 2014.”
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Red Cedar 
Skip everything and go directly to ‘Goldfinch’!
I LOVED that one you leant me recently, “The Snow Child”. Haven’t found another novel since then that’s grabbed me quite as much. I usually impulse-grab from the library, but maybe I’ll check out some of the ones on your list as well…
Just finished The Orenda – intense and bloody and controversial. More than usual for Joseph Boy den.