Most of you know by now I am a bibliophile, as in I enjoy entering a bookstore and smelling new books more than many men enjoy the Superbowl. I like books more than ice cream. I like books more than exercising, which creates problems. I like books better than swimming at the beach. I like books more than a few of my relatives. Shhh . . . .

I bring books with me to read in the 12-hour drive to North Carolina as my only form of entertainment. As a college student I brought a pleasure book with me to boring lectures and concealed my book within the textbook. I bring books with me to certain sporting events, particularly those that feature either the elliptically-shaped ball or the white one with red stitching. I bring books with me to work for my break, and I'm often reading the book while eating lunch. I bring books with me if I have to meet someone and there's a good chance the other will be late: I mean you, unnamed dermatologist! I even bring a book to family movie night if I know it's a movie I won't like but I still want the brownie points of "family time."

I am a born-and-raised book addict.

But as maybe a strange confession, or maybe to be fully expected depending on how you look at it, I do not have a good track record with either libraries or bookstores. For the first, I borrow too many books and read them too slowly. For the second, well I buy out the store.

In lieu of the bookstore- or library-hosted summer reading program, I am making my own summer reading program using my personal library. My reasons are:

1) I get to avoid library hassles and impending late fees
2) I own them already, so it's free
3) I have more free time in the summer
4) I want to get competitive with myself and see how many of these lonely, unread books I can polish off by September
5) it fills me with glee. Yes, GLEE I tell you!

Now we get to the fun part where I share with you my book plans!

Books Already Read This Summer:
-Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
-Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
-War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
-The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo


Books I Really Want To Read This Summer *though I doubt I'll get to even half of them*:
-Don Quixote
-Lolita
-Nicholas and Alexandra (about the last tsar and tsarina of Russia before the revolution)
-The Picture of Dorian Gray
-Rob Roy
-Anna Karenina
-Gone with the Wind
-Flowers for Algernon
-Swiss Family Robinson
-The Tales of King Arthur and His Knights
-Black Beauty
-Treasure Island
-The Secret Garden
-Peter Pan
-The Hunger Games series
-The Annals of Fairyland and King Oberon (yes! a book based on the fairy characters from A Midsummer Night's Dream. King Oberon, Queen Titania, probably Puck too and it's illustrated!!)


The Books I Really Want To Read But Involve A Bookstore Or Library:
-Jane Eyre
-Cold Mountain
-Murder on the Orient Express and possibly others from Agatha Christie
-Game of Thrones series
-Harry Potter series


The Books I Want To Re-Read:
-Great Expectations
-Les Miserables
-The Hunchback of Notre Dame
-To Kill A Mockingbird
-A Farewell to Arms
-Wuthering Heights
-Atonement
-The English Patient
-Surrender (by Sonya Hartnett)
-Dracula
-Frankenstein
-The Little Prince


Do you have any favorite books to recommend? What are your summer reading plans?