The Soul of Wit

"It's the most wonderful time of the year..."
Except it's really not. In fact, if the most wonderful time of the year were prancing about like an overly caffeinated ballerina atop either geographical pole, then we would be smack-dab in the center of the abyss of abject misery drilled into the core of the earth. In any case. It is the time of year at which important schedules must be made for the following year. And no, I do not mean Tele-BEARS, which is the spawn of the devil and needs to be painstakingly flayed with a dull razor and then thrown into a vat of brine. (Threat of the Day, yay!)

I'm talking about the summer literature list. At the moment, I've finally gotten back into Jane Eyre, so I definitely want to finish that up. The Brontes aren't particularly my cup of tea, but it's not unreadable.

Hmm. Here's the complete list of possibilities as I remember it. There's no way I'm going to get through all of these consecutively, especially since I'm notoriously given to buying random titles I spy in Barnes & Noble, but I'll try to get through a couple this summer. I welcome both advice and new suggestions!

On the Bookshelf:

• Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
• Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
• The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles
• One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
• The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
• State of Fear, by Michael Crichton
• Don Quijote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Under Consideration:

• Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
• Interview With the Vampire, by Anne Rice
• Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, by Judith Martin
• A new Jane Austen: Persuasion, perhaps?
• A new Agatha Christie: I've only read And Then There Were None, but that's fabulous and frightening enough for the past six years

Begging for a Careful Reread (because I was too distracted during high school):

• Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
• The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
• Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

Worn-out-but-still-tempting Old Favorites (not an exhaustive list):

• Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
• The Giver, by Lois Lowry
• Harry Potter (all six), by J.K. Rowling
• Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
• Emma, by Jane Austen
• Possession, by A.S. Byatt
• The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
• The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
• David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens

P.S. The title of the entry, if you didn't know, means "To read well is to master the ages." :)