by George Giannakos and Robyn Yager | Slowing down a little and breaking out a good book is never a bad idea. But what to read? You could walk into any bookstore and roll the dice on a recent release, but here’s another option: pick up a book that you last put down 5, 10, or 20 years ago. For the next book in Scout’s Read It (Again) series, we’ve picked Albert Camus’ 1942 novel: The Stranger.

Why you should read it again: Take an apathetic anti-hero, throw him into a heat wave, and make him go through a bizarre sequence of ill-fated events. What do you have? Your life last week in Vancouver, you say? Perhaps, but I was thinking about Meursault in “The Stranger.” Written in short, sparse sentences and weighing in at just over one hundred pages, it’s a perfect candidate for a lazy August read. The book gets bonus points for inspiring The Cure’s first single “Killing An Arab” and for turning 70 years old this year. Give yourself bonus points if you can read it in the original French.

Pair with: wine seems to be the drink of choice for Meursault and his friends, and with the novel being set in French Algiers, French wine seems to be the obvious choice. The ladies from House Wine recently compiled a list of their favourite summer wines of 2012, and both French reds and whites are in attendance. As for where you should do the pairing, it’s good to remember that the book is seperated into 2 parts: the first near (or on) a beach (preferably white), and the second inside a small, dark room (ideally read). Vancouver has plenty of both, so take your pick and enjoy.

OTHER CLASSIC PAIRINGS