Mostly I’ve been obsessing with serial lit this summer.

Much of this was inspired by my commitment issues.

Some of it was rooted in nostalgia, as complicated as that may be.

Part of it was just for fun.

Altogether, it added up to a lot of books.

Beverly Cleary’s Ramona stories:
Ramona the Pest. Ramona the Brave.  Ramona and Her Father. Ramona and Her Mother. Ramona Quimby, Age 8. Ramona Forever. Ramona’s World.

Mary Norton’s Borrowers stories:
The Borrowers; The Borrowers Afield; The Borrowers Afloat; The Borrowers Aloft; Poor Stainless; The Borrowers Avenged.

Edward Eager’s Half Magic and Magic by the Lake.

Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family series:
All-of-a-Kind Family;  All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown; More All-of-a-Kind Family; All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown; Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family.

Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi stories:
Pippi Longstocking (post from 2010); Pippi Goes on Board; Pippi in the South Seas

Susan M. Coolidge’s Katy series:
What Katy Did; What Katy Did at School; What Katy Did Next

Louisa May Alcott’s classic trilogy:
Little Women and Good Wives; Little Men; Jo’s Boys

And then there were new series that I haven’t chatted about here yet. (Louise Penny, Charlaine Harris, Jeff Smith.)

It started to feel strange, picking up a standalone novel.

But I did read Jane Urquhart’s Sanctuary Line (which I’d started and left unfinished so many times that it almost felt like reading a series of books).

And took in some other Canlit. Some other graphic novels (some of  which launched new series for me…hmmm, all of them, now that I think about it: see how fickle I am?)

Some books by my MRE Authors. Some theme reading for the stuff I’d wanted to focus on for 2011. And keeping an eye on the challenges I signed up for this reading year.

And now I’m reading Alistair MacLeod’s “The Closing Down of Summer”. Here’s how this short story begins:

“It is August now, towards the end, and the weather can no longer be trusted.”

It’s been a busy reading summer for me: how about you?