Junior Summer Reading

Junior year is a year of hard work and long hours, so it may seem that our novels should reflect this. One could argue that we should read books regarding the benefits of hard work and wasted time memorizing vocabulary words for a slightly higher SAT score. The truth however, is that as honors students we have a good understanding of these frivolous hours of work, and so it is good to read a book now and then that is focused on reflection on the world around us, an activity that most of us don't do nearly enough of. For this reason I believe these books, the Log of the Sea of Cortez and Cannery row should be read. Even though the log was boring, and neither of these novels had much overall plot direction the beauty was found in the subtleties and the thoughtful tangents rather than the epic plot or heroic endeavors. I think that a book written with these goals also lends itself to deeper discussion and writing themes than that of epic plot.
thanks for reading,
sam