From One Book Lover

A show of hands: who's eaten anything at hand rather than put a book down to figure out dinner? I rest my case.

Too, too clever. Thanks for the tip, Buzzfeed .

For the 12 weeks in summer, I chose 18 books for my list. See below. For those who crying out, "What in the — Chris, no one can read all of those titles!" I offer them to you, from the top (but not necessarily in the order in which I will read them): Fifty Shades Freed Fifty Shades Darker Mockingjay Catching Fire We Always Have Lived in the Castle Smut From the Borderlands: Stories of Terror and Madness Wicked Appetite The Great Stink The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag A Lion Among Men An Outrageous Affair The Submission Sacre Bleu Dream Fever Anubis Gates True Grit The Hangman's Daughter But wait: I have two on my Kindle to add to the list! A Princess of Mars Beyond Hades : The Prometheus Wars Counting Fifty Shades of Grey , which is on my nightstand, that brings the total to an even 20. And that's just my list now. Wait until I get going. I suspect there may be a swap-out based on a few discussions I've had. I als...

See more of him on I Can Has Cheezburger . (Okay, I admit: the misspellings and grammar on the site drive me crazy, but look at this dog!)

To My Dear and Loving Husband If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me ye women if you can. I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompense. Thy love is such I can no way repay;       The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. Then while we live, in love let's so persever, That when we live no more we may live ever. by Anne Bradstreet

There's something carefree about reading during the summer. Even when I took summer school classes (for fun!), I always had extra time to read. In fact, many of the classes I took included reading lists that somehow seemed less daunting because the books could be read under a tree, on the beach, in a hammock. I could tackle hefty books in the bright summer sunlight. I could breeze through light fare on the windswept beach of the Pacific Ocean of my childhood. There was nothing too huge that couldn't be faced in the summer. One excellent source of summer reading lists was my local library. There was always a reading competition, an incentive to read more, the most, the best. Not to brag, but one year I read more books than any other kid in the library. The librarians ran out of prizes — which was even better because reading was its own reward. But as I left school and found myself in the workaday world, I found fewer and fewer reading programs. Libraries used to offe...

I wanted to like The Odds: A Love Story , the latest slender novel by one of my favorite authors. And yet — Stewart O'Nan killed the entire novel for me with the last line. The book itsef was not entirely trouble-free. For such a small tome, the build-up was rather lengthy. I liked the detail, but I didn't like the characters. I really disliked Marion, who seemed rather shrewish and unforgiving (considering her own story). I thought Art was a little too groveling, but I suppose that made sense, in context. While the relationship was the story, the gambling aspect was a mystery through most of the novel. I don't gamble, not even pretend Monte Carlo Night, so I needed more guidance. Art seemed to think he knew what he was doing, but I didn't. Again, not until the end was there any detail on how in the world two very grounded people thought they would succeed at such a, pardon the pun, gamble. I have adored a couple of his past novels, repeatedly recommending them...