Summer's reading list

I am so giddy with excitement when Spring semester was finally over and I have three months of summer to read all the fiction novels without feeling guilty. Being a Political Science student means to be laden with shitload of assigned readings, not including readings that are part of doing research, and any attempts to read non-academic type of books would be done at the expense of neglecting one's assigned readings. At least that's how it is for me. I only made one exception last semester when I read the English translation of Pramoedya's "Bumi Manusia" or "This Earth of Mankind" just to see how it stacks up against the original Indonesian version--it's about as close as you can get. I dropped all my school work for two days and spent all my waking hours finishing the 400 plus-page book--I was so engrossed in it that it was virtually impossible to put down. Alas, that's the kind of vortex that a good fiction book can produce to suck you in immediately into an intricately-woven world that is so much vibrant and dynamic than your everyday, routinized life. Indeed, a form of escapism, in its truest sense. I did feel the occasional guilt pangs when I was reading "This Earth of Mankind" but I figured it was very small price to pay to be mesmerized by one of the greatest novelists in the modern times.

Anyway, here's my reading list for the summer. I've finished some and I look forward to reading them all.

1. The rest of the Pramoedya's Buru Quartet - Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All Nations), Jejak Langkah (Footsteps), and Rumah Kaca (House of Glass).

2. Pramoedya - Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu: Catatan-Catatan dari Pulau Buru (The Mute's Soliloquy: A Memoir)

3. Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch

4. Jonathan Lethem - Fortress of Solitude

5. Memoir Ahmad Boestamam - Merdeka Dengan Darah Dalam Api

6. Koleksi puisi (poetry collection) Chairil Anwar

7. Naguib Mahfouz's The Cairo Trilogy - Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street

8. The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems

9. Carlos Fuentes - The Death of Artemio Cruz

10. Azar Nafisi - Reading Lolita in Tehran

11. William Faulkner - Absalom, Absalom!

12. Shahnon Ahmad - Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan

13. Faisal Tehrani - Perempuan Politikus Melayu, 1515

I know it seems a bit too optimistic to finish all these books in three months but consider how much free time I'll have from now till the first week of September, I think I can make it. I've already picked Ahmad Boestamam's memoir to read on the unbearably long flight to Malaysia. I've also set aside Pramoedya's books and Chairil Anwar's poetry for my 10-day jaunt in Java (how appropriate!) when I'll be riding the train from Jakarta all the way to Surabaya, with stops in Bandung, Jogjakarta, and Solo. I'll also be reading Neruda (the unrivaled poet of love) while lounging on the secluded beach being tend to by my harem of sweet and sultry Indonesian girls. Ah, what a life, indeed!

While I already vowed not to lay a finger on any academic books this summer, I have somewhat broken it by checking out of the library Syed Hussein Alatas's "The Myth of The Lazy Native," a seminal work in post-colonial studies, right up there with Franz Fanon's "The Wretched of The Earth." I also just bought Amy Chua's "The World On Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability," which I'll be reading this summer too. Once a political junkie always a political junkie but in my defense, ethnic relations in SE Asia will be my next research topic and these two books do have something to do with it.