Summer is a great time for catching up. Catching up on sun, catching up with high school friends, and my personal favorite, catching up on reading.

Sure, as an English major, I read constantly during the school year, but I rarely find the time to venture off the professors’ required reading lists (if I even finish that). So come every June, I have a huge list of books to tackle over the summer.

Last year, however, I kept putting off the thick, scholarly ones until I found myself halfway through the summer with no more quick, fun books left to read. It was impossible to finish Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” knowing that Franz Kafka came next. I never even got to “The Metamorphosis”; my bookmark is still lodged somewhere in the middle of the Dust Bowl.

So this summer, to avoid literary fatigue, I put more care into compiling my reading list. I treated it like an art form; much like a good mix tape, with one book successfully building off the last while still feeling new.

And because it has paid off so far, I’ve compiled a few guidlines for how to shape your reading list to be sure that you have some impressive titles to mention when you get back to school.

The main recommendation is to start the list off with an ambitious book before you lose your energy. Try picking one of those literary classics you’ve always said you should read but have never gotten around to. This June, I finally finished James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” the ultimate challenge of a novel, with its indecipherable narrative and its barrage of historical allusions. I would have never completed it if I had had to dread it all summer.

Working through the difficult book was also easier knowing that there was a reward at the end. I scheduled a contemporary novel, Chuck Palahniuk’s “Haunted,” right after “Ulysses.” The book’s fast paced, straightforward manner of storytelling and moments of unbelievable, bizarre humor were a far cry from Joyce’s long-winded Irish classic.

So now that I’d knocked two books off the list, I deserved an uplifting novel (especially after the disturbing “Haunted”) so I chose Nick Hornby’s “On The Way Down.” Although the book centers on suicide, the story of four individuals forming a connection and breaking away from their lonely existence was both heartwarming and humorous.

Once I was done with three books, I had grown used to always carrying a book with me and reading in my spare time. So now I could try something potentially boring. I threw in a nonfiction book that I could proudly be seen reading, appearing smart. Whether the book falls under biography, science or history, choosing a more challenging read is a good way to avoid falling into the trap of mindless summer activities. I picked UCLA professor Jared Diamond’s book, “The Third Chimpanzee,” and was able to boastfully relate the evolution of human warfare and sexuality to all my friends.

And once I’d gained some valuable knowledge, I could finally balance out the reading list with a guilty pleasure. It is summer after all, and tacky chick lit or trashy romance novels fit nicely into a beach bag.

Come mid-August, however, continuing even the most well-planned reading list can become a difficult task, and you might need more motivation to keep reading than just the next book in the sequence. This is the time to pick out books that have been made into a movie that you really want to see, and thus make the reward watching the movie, not reading another book.

I chose Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” about drugs, rock ’n’ roll and journalism during the ’60s so I could watch the movie starring Johnny Depp. And I’m currently speeding through Ernesto Che Guevara’s “Motorcycle Diaries” so I can celebrate completing the book with the DVD version.

But perhaps the best way to avoid literary fatigue come the dog days of summer is to find company. Just as a new fitness regime works better with a workout partner, reading your selected books with friends or in a reading club provides great motivation. It allows you to rehash the book’s developments as if it was last night’s “Grey’s.”

And even if you haven’t started reading yet this summer, there’s still plenty of time. With a realistic and well-rounded book list, you can come back to campus this September well-rested, well-tanned and well-read.