August 19th, 2016
By Jason Parr
While it is still mid-August, the promise of falling leaves and cooler weather is right around the corner. As I prepare to start my junior year at the University of St. Thomas, I am already thinking about all the things I want to do to enjoy autumn in Minnesota. My list includes the typical things like going to an apple orchard and spending time outdoors admiring the beauty of the colorful trees. However, the approaching cooler weather also has me thinking about curling up indoors with a good book. Many people love to do most of their reading on lazy summer days. I wholeheartedly agree laying the sun and escaping into the pages of a great book is fantastic but I always find myself wanting to be IN the water during the hot summer months. Fall weather is my absolute favorite weather out of the whole year, and getting outside is a must, but I also love being cozy and warm indoors curled up with a good book and a cup of tea. My list of books to read for this fall are The Alchemists by Neil Irwin, Harry Potter and The Curse Child by J.K. Rowling, and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.
I started The Alchemists over this past spring break but got too caught up in the end push towards finals to finish it in April. It is a nonfiction book about the roles Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Mervyn King of the Bank of England, and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank played in the financial crisis of 2008. While the many people would not be able to recognize the names of these men, they can be credited with navigating the world through extreme periods of economic volatility. While I have taken a good deal of economics course in college, I believe this book would be interesting and easy to follow for someone who doesn’t have a strong background in monetary policy.
The Harry Potter series will always have a special place in my heart. I remember beginning the series when I was in 3rd grade and waiting in anticipation for a new book to be released. I went to the midnight premieres of the movies (once my mother deemed I was at an acceptable age to be out that late) and stood in line for hours in Kings Cross Station just to get my picture taken at Platform 9 ¾. Now, at the age of 21, I got all giddy about Harry Potter all over again. Like The Alchemists, I have started, but have yet to finish Harry Potter and The Cursed Child. While there is a big part of me who loves it simply due to the fact that it is based on some of my favorite literary characters, I am slightly disappointed with the story thus far. This is partly due to the fact that the book is in the form of a script and also due to Albus, Harry’s son, being nothing like his father. However, I am not about to give up on anything related to Hogwarts or Harry Potter.
The Metamorphosis was recommended to me about a year ago, but being a college student, I pushed the idea of reading a “classic” in my free time aside in favor of binge watching shows on Netflix. In high school I was in AP English classes and enjoyed reading and discussing the classics. Now as an economics major, I find myself analyzing graphs and equations, not literature. Last week one of my friends told me about she was reading The Metamorphosis and how much loved it. I truly do miss reading challenging books so I am planning to make it my goal to read in the next few months. I honestly know very little about Kafka or the book outside of the description on Wikipedia but I look forward to reading it.
Now that you know my autumn reading list I hope you are inspired to come up with one of your own! Happy reading (:
Categorized in: Uncategorized
