One Last Summer Reading List and Book Haul!

Back in Kansas City.... and I have two weeks until I have to be back in Beloit. :/

Therefore I have made myself an "end of summer" reading list; hopefully I'll get through it all?

....Pfft. Yeah, right.

Abarat is something I've been planning on reading for a long time now, since I got the second book in the series years and years ago for Christmas. I finally got the first book a year ago, and I've gotta say - Wow! It has super vivid imagery. I can definitely tell that the author (Clive Barker) is also an artist; his descriptions are lush and perfect and strange. I'll hopefully post my reaction soon!

The two poli-sci books were assigned reading for my International Politics class last year, but since I fell asleep while reading them repeatedly (I am a terrible IR major) I'm going to try to knock them out now before the new school year starts. I think it's really fascinating material that should be helpful to me as an IR major, so the fact that I fell asleep while reading them are eternally frustrating to me.

And as for my recent book haul:

I also went to the used bookstore and found the rest of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker "trilogy" for less than $2.00 each! I loved the first book in the "trilogy," so naturally I have high hopes for the rest of the series. I also got Hemingway's Boat (because he fascinates me, and I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about him) and Parade's End by Ford Maddox Ford (because I watched the HBO/BBC series this past winter, and was left thinking "wtf?!" and kind of dissatisfied, so I'm hoping that the book will fill in more character development, etc.).

This short period before the end of summer is kind of weird for me because it isn't long enough to do anything substantial (like get a job), but still feels too short (because, hello, summer. School is school, and it always comes too soon and ruins my ~free days~). First world problem? Ugh, idk. I kind of feel awkward using that phrase, since people all over the world in "third world countries" or whatever can have trivial "first world" problems too, and as an IR major the concept of "first/third world countries" is just too... grounded in the Cold War to really be relevant or whatever, and the concept of ranking countries based off of their alignment with the US and USSR is just really biased and stupid. But "developed world problems" just isn't as catchy I guess.

...IR major moment aside...

Is anyone else rushing to finish their fun before summer ends?
-M