By: Gabriela Yareliz
There she was on the train, staring into her copy of Middlemarch by George Eliot. I like Middlemarch. I even read my favorite New Yorker writer’s book that pulls themes from it, Rebecca Mead’s My Life in Middlemarch. Virginia Woolf (one of my all time favorites) said that Middlemarch is “one of the few English novels written for grownup people.”
There aren’t too many people who are as masochistic as I am when it comes to reading classics. Given the reader’s age (she took forever to turn that page), I quickly understood it must be some sort of summer reading, perhaps. That or the book is having a new moment since it’s 1871 publishing. And if that’s the case— listen, mazel tov.
As I observed, I had been listening to an excellent podcast on fiber (guys, fiber can protect you from cancer. More on this later. Check out the pod)—when my thoughts were interrupted, and I got distracted thinking about the joys of summer reading.
There was something predictable and exciting about a summer reading list. I’ll never forget that summer I spent sitting on a church kitchen counter at a vacation Bible school reading The Odyssey in between manning the snack shifts for the kids.
Summer is for fiction. I don’t read fiction often, but when I do, I find I gravitate toward it in the hot summer months. Maybe, it’s the idea that if you can’t travel or go away— you can have your mind travel and get away. It’s a time for mental adventures.
Do you have a summer reading list? I am on book #34 of the year and still scheming for ways I can squeeze in more books. I didn’t read much in the past two months, but I will be diving into some books soon.
I am curious though— what is on your list? What was your favorite summer reading book? Mrs. Dalloway shook me to my core. Those are feelings you never forget. The books I read as a child changed me forever. They shaped me deeply. I saw this beautiful homage to the American Girl books the other day, and I was reminded of this. Books that taught about virtues like courage, goodness and integrity.
Books hold power. Something magical, almost. They get engraved in the soul. The written word is something mystical. This is why we must choose carefully. I find it to be no accident that what God left us was a book. I am sure there is more to this than we could ever imagine or understand.
If you don’t have a book you are reading, find yourself a gem and see what you find. It may be a memory that lasts forever.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 