"Light" summer reading

I've decided that as much as I love my Harry Potter books, I should probably branch out and read more of the "classics" that I wasn't forced to read in high school. And I should probably continue rereading most of the books I read back then, assuming they will mean more to me now than they did then.

I've looked up several of the "Best 100 Novels" lists to try to determine which books I should start with. One list I found has a board's list of the best 100 books as well as a reader's list; four of the top ten books (including #1 and #2) on the reader's list are Ayn Rand books! I highly recommend Atlas Shrugged to all who read this blog- that's definitely one I need to reread. And I should start on The Fountainhead too. I have some books that I really want to read, not because they are or aren't on the list, but just because I want to have read them. Like the Lord of the Rings books, more F. Scott Fitzgerald books, any Hemingway books (would you believe I'm 22 and I've never read anything by Ernest Hemingway?), more Jane Austen novels, Ender's Game, and many of the books with depressing names written by Russian authors with complicated last names that I can sort of pronounce but I certainly can't spell.

On an unrelated note, I've posted pictures from my southwest adventure on Facebook, so you should definitely check them out :o) In a few more weeks I'll have pictures from the Northeast to post also; I'm going from one corner of the country to the other!

It's just starting to hit me how much I need to accomplish in the next few weeks; some furniture went on sale at Target that I really like (it's not too fancy, but I like it anyway), so I'm thinking of ordering it this week, since it's 25% off for the sales price, so that'll be a total of 35% savings for me using my team member discount. I need to buy a lot of furniture, determine what project I want to adopt for my Ph.D work so I can go ahead and register for my fall classes, buy a parking permit (eww), and most importantly, actually FIND somewhere to live. I've got to fit that in around the 35 hours I work each week, so it'll be an exciting challenge, I'm sure.

Well, it's late, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is waiting to be finished (for the 15th time...). Wish me luck with my endeavors for the next few weeks!