By Rebecca Lane
The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Stephen Fry. With his hilarious accents for all the different aliens I enjoyed it far more than if I’d read it. I’m glad I finally know why the number 42 is so important.
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Beautifully written, this story centres around memory, reflections on the past, and the regret that comes with age. The first part recounts the narrator’s school days and idealistic expectations of life leads and then jumps ahead forty years when he is an unexceptional middle-aged divorcee, still learning about the past.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The first book I read on my Kindle — one I’d struggle to lift in print at over 1,000 pages! This book has everything — love, adventure, rags to riches — but it’s the story of betrayal and revenge spanning a lifetime that I found so fascinating.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
As haunting as its reputation promises, I loved this eerie story of a second wife trying to deal with the suffocating presence of her predecessor and the mystery that unfolds.
When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
I thoroughly enjoyed this funny yet touching story of family life and the impact external events have on these vital relationships. It also includes a talking rabbit, which sounds odd, but it definitely works.
Rebecca Lane is a Commissioning Editor in Reference & Dictionaries at Oxford University Press.
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Michelle Rafferty, Publicity Assistant
Don’t know what to read this summer? Swore off ye olde canon after high school? Associate Editor Andrew Herrmann insists that literary classics are a necessary foundation for any pop cultural enthusiast, and he has just the two for us: a bawdy ancient novel and a sweeping swashbuckling adventure. (Don’t worry, no plot spoilers here!)
Michelle Rafferty: So I’m here today with Andrew Herrmann who is an Associate Editor 
here at Oxford. Every time I see Andrew he has an Oxford classic in hand—in the elevator, in the canteen when he’s eating his lunch. He’s a voracious reader and is a huge fan of our classics. So I asked Andrew if he would sit down and give us a few recommendations for summer reading, and he kindly agreed to give us a few. Hi Andrew.
Herrmann: Hey Michelle, thanks for having me. One book that I think people might consider this summer is Petronius’ The Satyricon, which you may be thinking, “What in the world is that?” But it’s actually an ancient novel, one of the first novels ever written, and the great thing about it is that it gives you an insight into the Roman World that you don’t usually get from things we think of when we think of Roman classics like Virgil’s The Aeneid, etc. It’s a really bawdy novel and very graphic. And there’s quite a bit of Roman profanity and odd situations, so it’s definitely a hidden beach read if you will. The main character Encolpius, his name in Latin kind of translates into “the groin,” and he is always getting into trouble and is on the wrong side of the law half of the time and fleeing from people and from ex-lovers, etc. So he’s definitely a fun character to follow. And some of it is not appropriate to be shared on the blog I’m sure, but it’s definitely worth checking out.
Rafferty: Could you just give one little inappropriate anecdote? You got to sell us on this Andrew!
Herrmann: Well there’s definitely a lot of prostitution that occurs, definitely some use of sex toys, definitely a different take on Roman society that you may not get from the epics you may have read in high school.
Rafferty: And how many pages are we looking at?
Herrmann: It’s not too long. The one bad thing, or the one drawback I would say is that it has come down to us in somewhat fragmentary condition. There are parts that are missing just because the text was not transmitted fully. But the main parts are there. So it’s not super long. You’re definitely only looking at a few hundred pages I think.
Rafferty: Alright. So what else do you recommend for us this summer Andrew?
Herrmann: The other book that I would recommend is the old classic The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s quite long, but it reads very much like an action adventure, romantic adventure, so it’s never boring certainly. It basically focuses on the life of Edmond Dantès. Life is going great and he’s about to get married, but due to a series of events, and people conspiring against him gets thrown into prison and is stuck there. And his escape is engineered by a fellow prison mate who,
