Stranded indoors? Blame the summer reading list.

Too many summers ago, within earshot of waves crashing on a Wisconsin beach, a fifteen-year-old sat down and unhappily opened a book to these words:

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously."

I don't recall whether Charles Dickens' favorite novel, David Copperfield, was completely up to the task of making that teenager forget that he was being forced to read an 896-page novel over his so-called summer vacation. But I'll give Dickens this much: it's the only thing I remember about that summer.

Mandatory summer reading lists, like Coca Cola out of 10-ounce bottles, are hard to find these days. But for students or parents hungry for a few titles, here's the Florida Department of Education's list of recommendations for elementary, middle and high school readers.

It's a decidedly eclectic mix. To be sure, there are a few classics, like Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo and Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. But they're bumping shoulders on the high school list with Flush, Carl Hiassen's ode to gambling, or something.

Give us your Tolstoy or Vonnegut memories from those summer reading lists of yore. The Gradebook wants to know. 

-- Tom Marshall, Times staff writer

Comments

[Tom Marshall]

My summer camp in Wisconsin had a mandatory "rest hour," during which the counselors napped off their late-night carousing and we kids were confined to our cabins.

It was a deadly-boring 90-minute stretch, and when I returned to camp for my second summer, I lined my footlocker with paperbacks.

The one that leaps above the others in my memory was "All Creatures Great and Small" by James Herriot, the hilarious true-life adventures of a country veterinarian in Yorkshire.

That was probably the high-water mark on my personal, 12-year-old list, which tended toward pulp action and science fiction. I think I recognized good writing when I saw it, but evidently didn't insist upon it. Ray Bradbury was king, but I also remember tearing through The Poseidon Adventure. It must have been better than the movie, right?

[Dave W]

I was always a rather "bookish" kid, but I remember I would read all the required summer books by July 4, and then move on to things my dad (a literature professor) recommended. I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, so I would always ride my bike downtown in the morning, sit under a shady tree on the lake at the college, go to my dad's office for lunch, go to college baseball field to meet my friends for a pre-practice game, and then after dinner, sit on the deck and read some more. It was pretty idyllic.

The list says "recommended," and of the high school selections, I think there are several books that are great reads (that kids don't enjoy them is a societal problem stemming from too much TV- the internet actually promotes reading, so its not as big of a problem). "Kon-tiki" was a really cool read, and if it didn't inspire "Cast Away," its related. "Night", by Elie Weisel, is an incredibly important (and short) book about the Holocaust that every student should be forced to read. The classics, like "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "All Quiet on the Western Front" are really good books.

I can think of about 9,567,234,637.74 things that would be far worse for kids to do than read during the summer.