I just tweeted about how I "cracked" and looked up the Lawrenceville School's summer required reading list for book suggestions. To understand why I used the word cracked, you would have to have lived through my four years at Lawrenceville, specifically the four summers before each year at Lawrenceville. That list used to be the bane of my existence, the sole reason I didn't want to leave my Lawrenceville, New Jersey enclave for three months each year, because I knew that the letter from the now defunct Assistant Headmaster's Office and later the Office of the Academic Dean would soon arrive detailing what books I would be "forced" to read that summer. To be honest I didn't read every book that was required, and in fact each required book sometimes wasn't so required in the end, but regardless of both facts, the letter itself was enough to ruin the summer state of mind.
As I was honest in admitting my occasional non-compliance, I will also be honest and say that that list produced two books that I couldn't put down while I was reading them and that I continue to recommend and love, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominique-Bauby. So yes some good has come from that dreaded list, but a lot more bad came with it...for the sake of professionalism I will not reveal the books that I couldn't stand, lets focus on the good shall we.
Also I cannot make it seem that Lawrenceville alone has turned my off to pleasure reading, the torture started at the Specialized High School Institute and continued into Prep 9. Having to read tomes like Great Expectations (which is a great story but 300 pages too long), anything by Shakespeare, Chaucer's classically long Canterbury Tales (I liked a few of those tales, don't ask me which because I don't remember), slowly and steadily killed what used to be the joy in my day, reading.
I used to wake up at 6am every morning to read my neighbor's New York Times in the blinding light that reflected off the Twin Towers. Why would I wake up so early, so that I could have the Times back in its blue sleeve and back on my neighbor's doorstep by about 7...and yes he knew I was doing that. I used to read Hardy Boy books in a day, sometimes 2-3. I read Harry Potter 4 in 3 days. The Redwall Series used to make my mouth water with its descriptions of the great feasts that were had in The Abbey of Redwall. Lloyd Alexander books used to be the changeups to the fastballs that were the yearly editions to the Redwall collection. And nowadays, its hard for me to fathom how I was able to do all that and enjoy it. That to me is incredibly sad.
And so now, on this day of Independence in 2010, I am trying to recapture the magic that once was. I don't want reading to be a chore anymore because I feel as though a part of me is missing and I need to get it back.
I have written this on the futon in my living room at home watching the Wimbledon Men's Championship with Nadal up 2 sets and on serve 5-4 in the 3rd. Thanks for reading!
-Diggs
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