Summer Reading 1

Summer is a great time for some relaxed reading. Hang out with friends? Go to the movies? Swimming pool? Shoot a few hoops? Expedition to the mall? Sure, but sometimes your brain just wants to chill. There’s only so much Facebook and Twitter that you can stand, and the evening news is plain depressing.

I’m going to suggest a few books to read. Your local library is a great resource, but these are available free online so you can take them with you on your laptop or phone. These are all from Project Gutenberg, which is the home of an incredible number of great books, all free and legal.

Onward we go, in no particular order (these are a few titles that came to mind as I threw this item together—I’m certain I will think of others later):

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (The original murder mystery author)
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Long before there was a Captain Jack Sparrow!)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (A monster story)
• A collection of short stories for high schools (These are better than you would think)
• The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (He sort of invented the horror story)
• The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (One of the first science fictions)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

And one really important non-fiction:

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Douglass

Two more things. If you really like one of these authors, go ahead and search for other books in the Gutenberg library, and if you want some other suggestions let me know.