I have a lot of books I want to read.

I always have a lot of books I want to read. But I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret: I tend to buy them and not read them. I want to. I just don’t. It’s for a variety of reasons: I have a toddler, I work at a startup, I have personal goals to achieve in those rare moments that I have time to myself, and the list goes on.

A side effect of this is that my summer reading list involves a lot of books that I already own, including: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler, Online Marketing Inside Out by Brandon Eley and Shayne Tilley, and The Principles of Project Management by Meri Williams.

In the category of books I don’t already have languishing on a bookshelf or nightstand: Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way by Bruce Campbell (I’m a fanboy), On Writing Well, 25th Anniversary: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Knowlton, Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness by John Layman (okay, seriously, I’m a fanboy—don’t judge me), Website Owner’s Manual by Paul Boag, and Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug (yes, I know, it’s embarrassing that I never read this). I’m also considering Rework by the 37signal guys.

This post is my first Weekend Assignment. If you’re really interested in writing but the blank page is staring back at you menacingly, the Weekend Assignment might be just the thing you need. Ever weekend they put out a new topic for you to write about. Working within the constraints of their assignment makes that blank page much more manageable.

This week’s assignment comes with extra credit:

Extra Credit: Okay writers, get to work! Write me the opening paragraph, just (1) paragraph of a summer read you would like write yourself. Again, any genre works fine, have fun with it!

So here goes:

When John woke up he had a splitting headache. He had been drinking again the night before. So much for AA. His sponsor wouldn’t be very happy with him. It was the third time in as many months that he had fallen off the wagon. Where was he? A seedy hotel room somewhere. A pack of cigarettes was lying on the dilapidated nightstand next to him. He reached for the cigarettes and that’s when he noticed the girl’s body lying in a pool of blood. He was going to need another drink.