My Summer Reading List

This isn't your average summer reading list. This is my last summer as a student (at least, for now). I'm about to start my final year of university, and this is what I hope to read this summer.


I've just put up a blog post about my reading goals and preparing for the FSOT. My reading is mostly motivated by that project and interest. For that reason, a lot of the books I've chosen to read lately are related to that project. This summer I hope to continue to read books on those lists, but I've got a lot of other interests I'd like to work on as well.

Also, if you want to check out my Goodreads account, I have a general to-read list and I regularly update what I'm reading and my ratings on books. I am really loving Goodreads lately. Also, I set myself a goal of reading 15 books this year. I am on track to meet that by the end of June. So, I guess I might need to reevaluate that goal in the next month or so.

May is already mostly gone, but I think I have time to read one more book this month. I'm hoping to read something a little bit lighter (although, I don't know that it will be that light). I've been following Trevor Noah for a year or so now. He's got a really great special on Netflix called "You Laugh but it's True." It's a mix between stand up comedy and biographical documentary. I'm hoping his book Born a Crime will be along the same lines. I think his story is really interesting and he's really funny.

After that, I'm not so sure in what order I will be exploring these interests, but this is what I want to learn more about this summer.

I'm hopefully going to walk about a week on the Appalachian Trail this summer. Also, last summer I did a day hike on it. I'm just kind of obsessed with it, actually. I have found a few books about walking the whole Appalachian Trail - all 2,200 miles! - and I'm hoping to read one this summer to get me in the mood. These are the two that have been recommended to me by people in the area. The first one is called On Trails by Robert Moor and the other is Where's the Next Shelter by Gary Sizer. Who knows, maybe I can read both!

The next one I'll try to finally get around to reading is I am Malala, which doesn't really need any explaining.

A few months ago, I read a really great book about the history of and conflict in Syria. It piqued my interest in the Middle East, which I've never really studied or learned about. I'm doing my best to catch up, and as part of my FSOT prep, I'm probably going to focus on the Middle East quite a bit. The two books that are kind of next on my list in that area are The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know by James L. Gelvin and Ghost Wars by Steve Coll.

Next, I hope this summer to tackled the 600-plus-paged book, the Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. I've been recommended this book a few times in the past couple of months and I've also had a growing interest in the Silk Road and its history, especially after visiting Xinjiang earlier this month. 

I use Twitter mostly to find interesting articles and sources on various topics relating to Linguistics (nerd much? I know.). Last week, I found a really interesting book called Bringing Linguistics to Work by Anna Marie Trester, PhD. It seems super relevant to a few of the things I'm working on at the moment. I've ordered it to my hometown, so while I'm home this summer, I'll read it. 

Lastly, I have a long list of books about China. There's no way I'll make even a dent in this list. I could spend a whole year just on this list. The two main ones I want to focus on are 看见 by 柴静 and Dragon Fighter by Rebiya Kadeer. The former is only in Chinese - no English translations as of yet - and I'm going to try to read it though I know it will be very slow going for me and I don't know my Chinese is quite good enough yet to read a book like this. Nevertheless, I've picked up a copy here in China and had a stab at it. The other book is about a Uyghur woman and her struggles with China. I'm really interested in both of these books.

So, that's hopefully what I'll be reading this summer. I'll post updates every month in my Monthly Recap posts.