I never understood the concept of a fluffy summer read. For me, summer reading means beaches, long train rides and layovers in foreign airports. All of which call for escaping into really long books.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Reading is a joy for my kids, and to swing in a hammock on a lazy summer day reading a good book just goes with summer.
My summer reading suggestion: Pick a really famous, really long novel.
Honestly, my entire childhood could be summed up with one word: Reader. I was always hunched over a book; in fact, I was the only kid in the world who got paler in the summer, because I'd sneak down into our cool, dank cellar and sit alone with a book for hours.
I'll read pretty much anywhere and anytime, but for a while now, I've really enjoyed reading on flights, especially the longer hauls, when I'm unplugged from everything and can completely immerse myself in the world of a book and submit happily to its rhythms, perspectives, ideas.
Time dissolves in summer anyway: days are long, weekends longer. Hours get all thin and watery when you are lost in the book you'd never otherwise have time to read. Senses are sharper - something about the moist air and bright light and fruit in season - and so memories stir and startle.
I have a hard time finding something that I really enjoy reading, but I read 'The Great Gatsby' every summer.
I read a lot when I'm travelling and always have a couple of books on the go.
Write about winter in the summer.
I was lucky enough not to face any required summer reading lists until I went to college. So I still think of summer as the best time to read for fun.
Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds.