I didn’t think too many people were interested in canonical summer reading. I would imagine whatever you were interested in would not necessarily be someone another person would agree with, which is probably why I haven’t seen too many adult reading programs (but maybe I’m not looking hard enough). Because I’m extremely interested in American Literature I decided to come up with a list of authors I wanted to read. I research the writer, read books by them and books of them, and every season I start a new one.
This year is a little special because I have a year long thesis in development, but this is what my next two years will look like (subject to change):
Summer & Fall 2011: J.D. Salinger
Winter 2012: Robert Lee Frost
Spring 2012: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Summer 2012: John Steinbeck
Fall 2012: William Hill Brown
Winter 2013: Walt Whitman
Spring 2013: John Cheever
Summer 2013: Marianne Moore or e.e. cummings (haven’t decided yet)
It seems to me that reading an author and their work in greater depth is more fulfilling than reading a bunch of random books chosen by someone else, but I hope you find a reading program you like. I remember as I kid having something like that gave me an opportunity to understand a theme from different perspectives, and in turn helped me develop an open-mind. :)