Well, I asked a lot of friends, family, and professors for summer reading recommendations, and the response has been overwhelming. Most people have responded to me now, and I have 70 recommendations (plus 7 more that I came up with for myself), ranging from "Elmo's Lost Blanket" (my brother Dirk says he's particularly enjoyed it lately) to "Paradise Lost" (from my Copyright prof), and just about everything in between.

Last night I spent some time with the living room bookshelf, picking off what books I wanted to pack to take with me to DC for the summer (with no Shelly, I anticipate I'll have lotsa reading time--maybe not 77 books' worth, but lots). There's this funny feeling I always get when I think about books. I get it just about every time I step into a bookstore, when I look at our living room bookshelf and particularly at the books on it I haven't yet read, and when compiling this reading list. It's almost a giddy, excited feeling of "Oh goody! Look at all the great things I'm going to learn, and the stories I'm going to experience!" I guess it could be called a hunger or a thirst for reading. Sadly, it doesn't always carry over when I actually sit down with one book to read it; the feeling comes when my mind races between many books at once. I think of how educated I'll be once I've read all these books, and I think of the rewards of reading. If only I could harness that feeling and inspire myself to spend more time reading.

Maybe I could do it this summer by taking these 77 recommendations (along with the nearly-as-large list I made for myself last summer and didn't get too far into) and prioritizing them. I could just reorder all the books into the order I'm going to read them. Then, while I'm reading Book A, I'll be inspired to spend more time reading it so that I can get on to Book B. If I think about Book B while I'm still reading Book A, maybe the giddy feeling will come. Stay tuned....