Thursday, June 26, 2008

Summer Reading Extravaganza Day 4: Summer Reading Activities

The Friendly Book Nook Summer Reading Extravaganza!

Today’s topic is summer reading activities. What we love so much about reading is that it expands our world! If you have any fun traditions or activities that you share with your kids or students that have to do with reading, today is the day to share them.If you don’t have kids, maybe you have a bookclub that does has some fun traditions or you enjoy organizing your books in the summer. Be creative and share with us!

I don't have any kids, and I don't really have any summer reading traditions (yet), so today I'm going to talk about one that I would love to start.

I'm in the yellow jacket with the big smile on my face!The summer between my Sophomore and Junior years in college, I participated in a Study Abroad course. We actually had two classes (British Romanticism and Spirit of Place in British Literature). For two weeks, we read a bunch of books and came to class every day to discuss them. Then we traveled to the UK and spent two weeks visiting the places mentioned in the books! It was amazing! My two favorite places were Lyme Regis (I'm sure many of you remember the Cobb that Louisa Musgrove fell down in Persuasion) and Arthur's Seat (site of a rather sublime scene in James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner). Sittin' on top of the world! Spending three hours climbing to the top made the idea of seeing God in the clouds a lot more believable.

We also visited the moors of Haworth (Wuthering Heights), Wales (Tintern Abbey), Hampstead (home of Keats), Newstead Abbey (home of Byron), Dorchester (site of pretty much anything Thomas Hardy wrote), and various other literary locations. It was the most fun I've ever had reading.

I've been talking with friends and family about saving up some money this school year and going on a trip to Italy next summer. I probably won't be able to go for very long, but I'd love to make it a literary tour! Any suggestions for books set in Italy? I'll definitely be re-reading John Berendt's The City of Falling Angels, because Venice is so on my list of places to see.

Visit The Friendly Book Nook for more fun summer reading activities!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How beautiful. Thanks for sharing that! What a great experience:)

Unknown said...

A literary tour, that sounds exciting. Italy would be my first choice.

Anonymous said...

That sounds so cool! I would love to do that some day. My husband and I talk about going to Italy and following in Aeneid's footsteps.

Amy said...

I definitely need to do that one day!