Summer Reading List

So, I decided that one of my summer projects would be to get lots of reading done. It's really hard for me to get much reading done when I'm working, so I always try to read as many books as I can over the summer. Last weekend, I went through my bookshelves and made a list of all the books I've started and haven't finished yet. I decided I should probably read those first. Here goes...

I'm reading several self-help books, including two by Phillip C. McGraw (Dr. Phil): Self Matters and The Ultimate Weight Solution. I'm also reading Self-Esteem by Matthew McKay and Patrick Fanning, Never Good Enough by Monica Ramirez Basco, Overcoming Anger by Carol D. Jones, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, and Life's Greatest Lessons by Hal Urban. I recently finished Undoing Depression by Richard O'Connor, and I have two other books on depression that I haven't started yet, but that I hope to get to this summer: I Don't Want to Talk About It by Terrence Real and Breaking the Patterns of Depression by Michael D. Yapko.

I don't read as much fiction these days, but have been reading quite a few history books: Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose, Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis, The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell, and An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin. After I finish Ambrose's book, I'll watch the mini-series; I still haven't seen all the episodes even though I own it on DVD. And then I'll probably start his book on Lewis and Clark, Undaunted Courage, that two of my uncles highly recommended to me.

I also have an interest in eastern religions, so I'm reading The Tao of Inner Peace by Diane Dreher, The Dhammapada, translated by Eknath Easwaran, and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff, the sequel to The Tao of Pooh.

I'm usually reading something that has to do with teaching, and now is no exception with The Conspiracy of Ignorance by Martin L. Gross and The Excellent 11 by Ron Clark.

I'm also usually reading something on fatherhood or parenting, and currently I'm reading Father Courage by Elizabeth Brown Levine and Zen and the Art of Fatherhood by Steven Lewis.

My interests in music, notably jazz, are fulfilled by West Coast Jazz by Ted Gioia and The Masters of Bebop by Ira Gitler.

Besides flipping through my various vegan cookbooks, I'm also reading a couple of related books, Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating by Erik Marcus and How to Read a French Fry by Russ Parsons.

And with my father being sick with terminal cancer, I'm reading FatherLoss by Neit Chethik.

I actually am reading two fiction books, The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien and Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. And after reading Dan Brown's books, I'm making my way through two books edited by Dan Burstein, Secrets of the Code and Secrets of Angels & Demons.

And, finally, down to the last three, which are all kind of off by themselves: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, The Sudoku Code by Francis Heaney & Frank Longo, and Touching the Void by Joe Simpson.

I'm not sure exactly what this list of books says about me, other than delineating my interests and showing what's going on with me at this time in my life. It also seems a little anal retentive that I'm trying to finish all these books that I've already started before staring any new ones, but then I clearly haven't been very successful in that, because I seem to be always putting aside some book and picking up a new one that interests me.