Finally, I've settled on the purpose of this blog.

My reasons for creating this in the first place were rather vague. I don't want to review books; I think I just want to keep track of what I read and what I did or didn't like about it. To that end, I want to also include great passages or lines so I can remember them later (I always find myself digging through books I read months or years ago, searching for one bit of dialogue or one particular description that I found especially entrancing). Special Topics really inspired me to want to memorize large chunks of poetry and prose so I can recite it at the drop of a hat, but I don't have time for that, what with working full time this summer, attempting to read every book on my freshman year reading list before the year actually starts, and also covering a good deal of contemporary fiction at the same time. Oy vay.

In actual reading news, Emma is really picking up. Hooray for Jane Austen. I am enjoying it, despite the fact that lately, what with finals and graduation and so on, I've been reading it at a snail's pace (twenty pages or so a day, not a bit more and often less). I adore Mr. Woodhouse; I think he is my favorite character. He is so fretful and old and charming and so hell-bent on convincing everyone else of how healthy gruel is (ew). Emma, though, is a little obnoxious, even though the back of the book describes her glowingly as "irresistible."

In "reading planning" news (I think I enjoy planning almost as much as reading itself), I am finding it difficult to decide what to read next. I'll continue with Emma, but it's definitely one of those books that can be read alongside several others. I need to establish some sort of structure in my reading, but I am SO BUSY right now I can't find time to sit down and do it. The problem is that I recently ordered all of these books from the library and I can only renew them a certain amount of times before I have to turn them in and then check them out again. I think I need to prioritize library books and then move on to the ones I own (last night I went through my bookshelf and pulled out nineteen books I hadn't read yet but desperately wanted to). I can actually feel myself developing an unhealthy obsession with Reading Lists and Summer Challenges. At least I can acknowledge that I have a problem, right?

Library books I have checked out and am really looking forward to reading:

A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya. The author was shot to death in the elevator of her apartment building in a contract killing after allegedly receiving repeated threats from the Russian government. The book is supposed to be awesome and tragic.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. I adore Rushdie's writing, even though I've only read a few chapters of a different book. But I have really been looking forward to this one for a long time.

No god but God by Reza Aslan. This guy is so awesome. He was on The Daily Show last week and was so clever and handsome and young. The book is a history of Islam, which is something I'm ashamed to say I've not read enough about.

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander. Short stories, which I'm so fond of. And I've heard such good things.

I feel like I put in a few more holds, but I can't quite recall (I guess I'll find out, right?). I'm debating whether or not it would be too risky to take a library book (or two) to Europe. OH, and my mom just bought A Map of the World, which I have been wanting to read for a long time. I read the first two pages of it yesterday but made myself stop (even though it was really good so far!) because I have TOO MUCH ELSE TO READ AND I WILL NEVER FINISH ANYTHING AT THIS RATE. Oh god and I also started reading The Corrections, which is so terribly witty and funny. But I am taking it to Europe with me, so I will have time to devote to it just a week!

I didn't realize until I wrote this post how absolutely random and scatterbrained my reading habits have been lately. Forgive me, for I have sinned, and will probably continue sinning for the rest of the summer. I fear that working full time is really going to interfere with my full time reading habit. But this entry is reaching epic proportions, so I will save my fears for another time.