There’s a lot (a massive amount, in fact) of coverage of “summer reading,” which is always interesting to me. Why? I don’t necessarily read more in the summer than in any other season. In fact, I’m more apt to read more in the winter, because it’s cold and I want blankets and books if I’m not snowboarding.
But I do love, love, LOVE looking at vacation reading suggestions, beach reading suggestions, and, though my kids hate them, summer reading lists. I am charmed by the idea that summer is designated somehow as a time for reading – and certainly, when I go on vacation like I did last week, my agenda was “sit, read, drink, eat, go somewhere else and repeat.”
Is ‘summer reading’ a thing for you?
Elyse: My reading doesn’t differ in summer, but when people say “summer reading” I tend to think they mean “vacation reading.” Wisconsin is beautiful in the summer, so most of my vacations happen in the winter when I go somewhere beachy. When I’m planning for vacation reading, I usually download a series to binge. I read about a book a day on vacation, so I need a series that’s at least 5-7 books long. I often have to combine buying ebooks with library downloads to ensure I have the whole series ready to go. Planning is key.
A few of my beach-binges have included the Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo. This is a mystery series with a formerly Amish chief of police who has to navigate the world between the Amish and the “English” to solve her cases. I’ve also binged Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache books on vacation, which are set in Quebec. Penny’s prose is just lovely and I feel like I get to savor it when I can dedicate longer periods to reading.
Romance series are good too, although I have to find one long enough to last my trip. Most recently I’ve gone back and read Jill Shalvis’ earlier books. I’ve also revisited Lisa Kleypas’ books.
I also love seeing what my hotel or resort has in their take-a-book/leave-a-book library. I’ve found some new-to-me authors that way and some pretty epic Old Skool Romances.
I’m looking at a trip this fall, and I’m thinking Bec McMaster might be my vacation binge.
Aarya: Until very recently, my life was structured around the school year for sixteen years. My family never went to the beach, so summer reading always meant “unlimited reading time now that school/homework obligations are done.” It was the best time of the year to go the library, check out dozens of books, read them all in four days, and repeat the process.
I don’t know if every library has this, but my childhood library had reading challenges for kids and teens (honor system). Once you passed a certain milestone (e.g., ten books or twenty five books), you were eligible for prizes and bookmarks. It’s hazy in my memory, but I think I won a t-shirt one year. What I do remember is reading a bunch of romance novels one summer, but lying on the report and claiming that I read YA “age-appropriate” books instead. I was mortified by the idea that some librarian would scan my report and see that I was reading Nora Roberts or Lisa Kleypas!
This is a tangent, but I wish libraries had summer reading challenges for adults, too. I feel like they’re always geared toward kids/teens, and I would 100% participate in an adult-geared summer reading challenge in the library. Does anyone know if such a thing exists?
I never read during vacations to other places; I don’t like to laze around and read all day if I’m in a new location. I’m the type of traveler who gets up at 6 AM, follows a meticulously planned itinerary, and goes to bed at midnight. For my Grand European Adventure a few years back, my sister and I planned out every minute of every day in an Excel sheet, including where to eat and shop. The only time I read during vacations is on the way there/back, and even then I prefer watching TV on airplanes.
Re: what I read, it doesn’t change at all in the summer (vacation or no vacation). It’s always romance novels, no matter what season it is! The one exception is my strange desire for holiday novellas in July and August. I really enjoy snowy/holiday books in the summer, especially when I’m cursing the humidity (I also may listen to Christmas albums in July, don’t hurt me). However, the summer is also a good time to set goals or catch up on something that’s been in my tbr forever. For example, one of my summer reading goals this year is to catch up on the Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh. I’m six books behind, and am determined to catch up before Archangel’s War comes out in September.
Amanda: I use my library more often during the summer.
I don’t want to go outside? I’ll just see what I can get digitally.
Have I spent three days without leaving my house? I’ll just take a stroll down the street to my local branch, which is less than a five minute walk from my apartment.
Thanks, Somerville Library!
As for my reading tastes, I don’t think those change too much and vacation reading doesn’t exist for me. I’m that person who packs four books and then doesn’t touch a single one.
And Aarya, I believe my library systems do a reading challenge or bingo style thing for the summer, though the challenges aren’t necessarily book focused, like “visit a museum” and things like that.
Sarah: Sidenote, I don’t know if I can tell you how much I want to restage this photo, keep the retro suits, make it more representative of the romance readership, and also use more umbrellas. In part, yes, because I want that beach mattress.)
I’m with Amanda, too. My library usage goes WAY up during the summer, particularly because binge reading often requires deft usage of library holds and pickup schedules.
What about you? How does your reading differ during summer months? Or does it not really vary at all?
i’m with sarah — winter means a built-in excuse to hide in the house under a blanket, and the shortened days mean late, long nights reading romance or fanfic. summer or on travel i’m more apt to turn to a tried-and-true cozy mystery series favorite that i can easily pick up and put down again as the mood or daily schedule permits. i’ve also done most of the inspector gamache series in one vacation, just for the chance to savor the prose — i agree with aarya, it is prose worthy of savoring.
Ha! I just picked up the Gamache series again because we were traveling through Quebec. On the road, I like to read about the different regions we’re in (like reading “The Grapes of Wrath” on a Rte. 66 trip).
My library has a huge adult (and kid, and family) summer reading program – involving badges and points earned through catalog searches, scavenger hunts around town, reading or listening to books, cd’s or dvd’s, attending library programs & classes, and so much more. We love it: https://aadl.org/play I love seeing the swag you can buy from the points earned around town, too. Lunch coolers, water bottles, different t-shirts, beach blankets, messenger bags, so much cool stuff.
These library programs are so cool, I don’t think we really have those in Hungary. But maybe it was only my library that didn’t.
I’d like to address the topic @Kathy raised about academic people devouring fiction after a year of research and just all in all non-fiction reading. I can attest to this a 100% – I am in the finish of my masters in law and since I’ve started uni 4 years ago my summer and all in all reading pattern changed a lot.
I am a person who hiperfocuses on her tasks, meaning that if I am doing research I live and breat it and if I am reading for fun I live and breat romance. The intense reading I have to do for uni is in 1-3 months blocks (usually indicated by deadlines or exams) and when I have a break between those blocks, I squeeze in as much fiction as I can. This way my reading became sporadic two week sessions of reading 10 books every 2-3 months.
Before, I always read an array of books in the summer, fiction, non-fiction, a lot of classics, but now I am just happy that I can read some adventure and fun and happiness. Sometimes, after months of reading research material, I just consume as much as I can in the period I have before I have to start another memo. I usually work in the summer months so my reading becomes a bit more leasured again but in content it is the same as through the year.
Also, @Aarya you’re not alone in the reading holiday romance in july-august department. There is a strange urge I have usually around the beginning of august to watch Love Actually and The Family Stone alongside The Holiday at least twice. Now that you confessed I know I’m not alone in this.
St louis Public Library had an adult summer reading progrsm when i lived there years ago, I got Cardinals baseball tickets, waterbottles (nice metal ones) and totebags. My little library in western MA also has an adult summer reading program. You earn raffle tickets for books you read in various generes. Then you can enter raffles for gift certificates to local businesses, gift baskets, etc. I think many libraries have these sorts of programs, but since many people (like me) use the library for digital checkouts, they may not be aware of them. Re summer reading in general, I dont think I do more in the summe or on vacation buts then I’m more likely to be doing other things. I probably read more in the winter.
In the summer, I like to read the latest “beach read” books by authors like Elin Hilderbrand, Dorothea Benton Frank, Mary Alice Monroe, etc. I put my requests in the queue at the library early as I have a hard time spending $16.99 on a Kindle book. I also read a few holiday books for “Christmas in July” while Hallmark is showing holiday movies and I use my favorite Christmas mug for a few days. The time I have for leisure reading varies, just like the rest of the year.
My county library has an extensive summer reading programs with prizes for the kids and a bunch of family-friendly events. Nothing for the adults this year. In the past, adult readers could earn a tote bag with a specific number of book check-outs. It was for non-electronic check-outs, so I didn’t score a tote!
@Viktória: You are mostly definitely not alone, and I know we’re larger than a Club of Two because LauraL just said that she does the same thing! I don’t know what it is about summer that makes me long for snow and Christmas – probably the mosquitoes and sunburn! 😛
Like many of the people in this discussion, I find that the season doesn’t much affect the content of what I’m reading. There’s not a lot of impact on the quantity either.
The one thing I can say is that for some reason, I am put off by the phrase “perfect beach read.” Don’t know why this phrase would be a negative, but I think I’m less likely to investigate a book if that’s part of the promo. Maybe it seems a mite derogatory–like the book is something you could afford to lose or get sand in.
I will say that hardcover library books are not perfect beach reads. Once sand gets inside those clear plastic book covers, it is trapped for eternity.
On a vacation at home or driving, I’m likely to read library books but when I’m flying, i read exclusively on my kindle. (Two summers ago, all of the Beard in Mind books were on kindle unlimited and I read them on a train in Norway).
I go to a music festival every summer where the moustache and I camp out and spend Saturday sitting in the sun reading. Historically, I’ve read something non-fiction and extra challenging, generally something justice-related. This summer I started early with Death in the Family, a book about the Gouge inquiry and the flawed pathologist’s investigation into child deaths in Ontario. I read A Mother’s Reckoning on the beach (by the mother of one of the columbine shooters) and have a book on human trafficking to read in the sun next. Somehow, hard topics are easier when I’m in the sun.
@Deianira my condolences my husband has dementia and I understand. My favorite romance :knaves wager by Loretta Chase. Very funny, no angst. Also by Chase, Mr. Perfect. Laura Lee Gurkhe’s And Then He Kissed Her and Lisa Kleypas IT Happened One Autumn , part of her wallflower series. All the books in this series are low angst. Finally a delightful read is The Proposition by Judith ivory. It’s a retelling of Pygmalion/ my Fair Lady, where the heroine is the language teacher and the hero is a cockney ratcatcher!!! . I was very skeptical about how successful this would be . I thought: how can a ratcatcher be sexy ? And hesitated to read it . But it turned out to be wonderful happy smiley with the sweetest , sexiest hero!! For cozy detective series where the hero actually is well adjusted, unlike most fictional detectives, who are traumatized in some way or the other, try Charles Finch’s Charles Lenox mysteries. The series, about 13 books, does have one or two sad moments but they are far and few between and of course has murder but the main characters are all nice and, there is a romance that develops as you go through the series.
I always read a lot, but summer travel time is ideal for a long series or heavier non-fiction read or both. I often look for books that somehow inform or relate to any destinations and that can be a nice expansion from my usual book choices. There are boat rides where all I remember is watching the sea and listening to an audiobook – a nice improvement from when I had to look at the book to get the same content. Text romance novels are my go-to escapism while I’m waiting to get somewhere and don’t want to be looking at my surroundings – train rides for example. I’m planning on a 22-hour train ride coming up – I think there is at least one Cherie Priest steampunk novel I haven’t read, maybe a Mercedes Lackey? zombie novel? Any train involved recommendations would be welcome 🙂 .
I do so wish those long, lazy summer days filled with reading by a pool or beach were a reality for me, but alas, summer’s often my busiest time at work. My reading frequency doesn’t change, but I (and my book club) do tend to go for sunnier, less demanding fare in the summer months.
I have more time to read in summer since I have some weeks vacation then, usually 4 weeks, but this year I have a new job, so only 2 weeks off this summer.
I used to have a rhythm to my reading where I read more romance and feelgood during spring, more classics and historical fiction in summer, autumn was more for reading mysteries and detective stories, winter was for reading ghost stories and fantasy. But I don’t follow that pattern anymore, but I can’t see if it’s a new pattern yet.
Seattle Public Library has Adult Book Bingo during the summer,
download a card & play along!
https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/learning/summer-of-learning/2019-adult-book-bingo