Once upon a time I told Maren I would have an all-fluff summer of reading. And once upon a time I tried hard to follow that rule. And once upon a time I failed.

The first two or three fluff books of the summer were entertaining and light and fun. And then the next 3 and the next 3 and the next 3 and I started to go a little book crazy. Because they are so easy to read, I have read 16 fluff books this summer but have never been so displeased with such a long string of books. It’s not the books fault. I’ve enjoyed the childrens books and even the others as well, but I missed learning. I missed being shocked by events in a story. I missed stories. And so I decided that I cold read one non-fluff book per month of the summer. So, in June I read Jane Austen’s Persuasion just because I was watching so many BBC films that I found I was yearning for some good ole Austen. Then in July, I decided to read the Anti-Fluff. And what could be more anti-fluff than Ayn Rand? Absolutely nothing.

So I read We The Living, which is her first novel and one that she claims is as close to an autobiography as she will ever come. I loved this book (as I love all Ayn Rand that I have read) and was sad to see it end. And, it was only 400 short pages long as opposed to the behemoth 1000 pagers she likes to write (Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) so it didn’t take long at all to read.

Please find below my favorite quotes from the book:

1. I was thinking about the streets. The streets of a big city where so much is possible and so many things can happen to you.

2. To a life which is a reason unto itself.

3. Don’t you know that there are things, in the best of us, which no outside hand should dare to touch? Things sacred because, and only because, one can say: This is mine? Don’t you know that we live only for ourselves, the best of us do, those who are worthy of it?

For her first novel, I was a little shocked to find that it was much darker and less hopeful than Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged. I mean, many a person died in this book in bad bad ways and life just sucked. That seemed to be the moral of the story and yet I still loved it.

My secret anti-fluff book for August is For Whom the Bells Toll by Hemingway. I have only read one Hemingway so far in my life, The Old Man and the Sea, but I loved it so much that I have read it twice in the last year and made Zak read it as well. I think Hemingway, much like Ayn Rand is an author that you either love or hate. Very few people feel just so-so about either of them. I like that. I like Ayn’s dramatic and strong women and her I’m-not-saying-the-word-communism-but-that’s-what-I’m-writing-about style. I also love what the New York Times calls Hemingways “terse prose”. The back of my copy of For whom the bell tolls says this as part of a mini-bio on the author: “Hemingway was an aficianado of bullfighting and big-game hunting, and his main protagonists were always men and women of courage and conviction, who sufferd unseen scars, both physical and mental”. Who woudn’t love that?

Speaking of anti-fluff. When August ends and I can start reading like a real person again, I’ve decided to do the award-winning tour. I think I’ll read some of the Pulitzers that I haven’t read, including the giant, Lonesome Dove. Then I’ll read the 2008 O. Henry prize winning collection that I bought just before the summer began and read one story in before having to take up the summer books. That one story was great, however, so I’m looking forward to the rest.

In case you are wondering what I am reading now in the fluff category I am sadly reading a book called “Lipstick Jungle”. Oh the horror. I think I’ve learned a valuable lesson this summer. If your sister buys you books, you should just read them when you get them and not let them accumulate over years until you have to do your penance by having an all-fluff summer. Note to selves.