Play Book Tag discussion

Over the last couple of weeks, as the Summer Beach Read lists have been gracing my inbox and links are being shared on GR, I have started musing about my summer reading plans. I have even thought back to past summers, and the books or genres that have dominated my summers since I was a young teen.

Then I thought: "how cool would it be to muse on a Monday about it on PBT and find out from others about their summer reading?" So here we are!

My first 'summer reading' memory: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - I must have been 12 - it is the book I took to read the week I went to 4-H camp. Trust me, it definitely did not make me one of the cool kids!

I remember spending summers as a teen reading Gone with the Wind, The Godfather, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, more Dickens...all random choices I made. James A. Michener and Thor Heyerdahl figured in there too.

In college and law school, the opposite happened - my summer reading became all about catching up on my favorite mystery series and the latest romances, especially historical romances. I always figured it was the antidote to all my academic reading!

So what has been my summer reading during most of my adult working life? A pretty mixed bag actually, a different vibe than the rest of the year because I do generally lapse into something I definitely classify as my summer reads. I hate hot weather, especially hot humid NYC weather. I don't like summer vacations, preferring fall or winters for my trips. I don't go to the beach as my fair Irish skin burns in seconds and I am a poor swimmer. My summers are my busiest times at work. So what is my adult summer reading?

Often it is some big classic...Middlemarch, The Lord of the Rings, Anna Karenina - have all been planned summer reads. Other times it is catching up on latest books from favorite authors, especially cozy mysteries. A couple years ago it was Christmas romances and mysteries, both new and rereads. I generally add the latest hot thriller or Grisham or the like to the mix.

This year...I am still musing. I kick off my summer reading in July, usually over the 4th. I am toying with doing a whole Christmas in July read-along...figured I could get NicoleR at least reading some of those Christmas goodies we did not get to during 2018 Flurries. But she has the Bar Exam...

I will be reading the next Stephanie Laurens coming out in July. And I am thinking I need to read Dickens again as it has been too long...maybe Bleak House or The Old Curiosity Shop.

What about all of you?

I can honestly say that my reading tendencies don’t change in the summer. Other than I do more of it outside!

I think summer is a great time to add in a beach read or poolside read like Crazy Rich Asians, the Nest, or His Magesty’s Dragon. Or a cozy romance. Definitely lighter fare.

I love a good beach read! I do not read only beach reads in the summer, but there is nothing I love more than reading a lighter fare contemporary fiction book while literally laying on the beach.

Unfortunately, my beach and reading time are limited through July because I am studying for the bar, but I am already collecting books to dive into when August hits!!

My reading doesn't always change much unless I've been doing a lot of heavy reading and want a break for the summer.

That said I can remember reading a number of significant books in the summer because of where I was. I remember reading Shōgun in paperback (it wasn't just out) on one of my last holidays with my family on the boat we shared with another family (NOT a fancy yacht, but large enough to sleep us sort of the way you would in a pop up trailer but I think with bunks that pulled down somewhere--that boat came near the end of my family holidays on the boat as I had summer jobs most of the time).

I read The Help in Osoyoos, BC, with a family reunion of my parents, siblings, our kids, and I know I read a The House at Riverton at some family holiday or other because my mother lent me both of those books on vacations not at their house.

There are plenty of others, but this is what I remember off the top of my head--some I no longer remember the titles but the plots/stories stayed with me, and not always because I wish they had.

Like others, I don't change my reading much for the summer, except for 3 things.

Recently, I have been trying to read some of the Booker nominated books.

I like to read a few books set in cold or Arctic regions as it often tops 100 in the Sacramento Valley.

Summer seems to be when I go on a reading tear of some sort. One summer I read a cozy cat series, one after the other of some 19 books. Another summer, I read all the Harry Potter books gulping them down one after another as quickly as I could. Am I going to do that this Summer? I have nothing planned but it could happen.

Nicole R wrote: "
..."Unfortunately, my beach and reading time are limited through July because I am studying for the bar, but I am already collecting books to dive into when August hits!!

NicoleR - I spent August after the Bar Exam staying on the family farm and catching up on all my favorite mystery authors - this was mid-1980s so Grafton, MaCleod, Hart, Grimes, Peters (Ellis and Elizabeth), Hillerman. I would go to the public library, bringing home stacks. Must have included a few romances!

Karin wrote: ...NOT a fancy yacht, but large enough to sleep us sort of the way you would in a pop up trailer but I think with bunks that pulled down somewhere--that boat came near the end of my family holidays on the boat as I had summer

That's what I call camping on a boat!

Booknblues wrote: "
I like to read a few books set in cold or..."

That's why I like reading Christmas ones in July August! NYC is beastly - high temps and even higher humidity. Spending a weekend decorating the English Country House with holly and mistletoe while a blizzard rages and the heroine and hero fall in love is the perfect antidote IMHO.

Theresa wrote: "I spent August after the Bar Exam staying on the family farm and catching up on all my favorite mystery authors"

I am spending two weeks at home with my family, where I probably won't read as much as I want but I will get some good, quality time with friends and family which is just as great! Then, I am spending two weeks in RI at a beach house where I plan to do absolutely nothing except read on a beach! lol. I typically read books on the beach that are the typical "beach read" but I am thinking about diving into the next Outlander installment instead. We'll see where my head space is.

My reading doesn't really change for the summer... except because I take a chunk of time off work in June, July, and/or August, I have a bit more time to read. Which means the past few years, I have been reading the next in the Outlander series.

My time off work gives me more time to read, so more time to complete a 1000+ page book and still read for my usual monthly challenges.

I always get miles more reading done in summer (particularly January, when very little is happening on the work front because most of the country is shut while everyone goes to the beach, lol). Delicious.

This time of year it’s tougher. All I want to do is curl up with a book by the heater, but it’s not as easy to create the space. Mind you, I did skulk off to the cafe at work for a while at mid afternoon today, in between meetings ... with e-book in hand ...

When I was a kid I remember reading all the time, anything I could get my hands on, so that´s what I did in the summer as well.

I read more or less the same in the summer, but tend to like reading large epic fantasy works, and catch up on my reading in general, especially more grown-up and heavy reads, since I read a lot of books for kids and teens as part of my work as a children´s librarian and reviewer. But I still mix it up with YA, SFF, middle grade, graphic novels etc. So yeah a bit of everything as usual :)

Oh yes, I just remembered: If I travel I like to read a book that takes place where I am going, while I am there. So reading The Shadow of the Wind in Barcelona for example.

My summer reading is kind of a mixed bag each year. I like your standard beach reads - mysteries, thrillers, etc - but I also like to fit in something classic or longer than I normally read. Otherwise, I just read what I want.

I get 2 weeks off at end of June or beginning of July each year, so I get a lot of reading done in that time.

This year I plan to read Lolita and Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest. The latter because I think it will be fun to listen to A Tribe Called Quest while I am on the road and pair it with the book.

Besides those 2 titles, I will save time for my trim and a tag if it works out.

A NY Times Summer Reading List for those of you still looking for that perfect summer read

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%...

I don't plan my reading to far ahead, but I will be going through some job and personal changes this summer an may not get much if any reading done

I'm also in the boat of "don't change my reading habits for the summer".

If anything I'll read LESS, when I take a vacation I never end up with time for reading unless it's on the plane. If anything I'm busier in the Summer, which would mean less reading.

Theresa wrote: "Nicole R wrote: "
..."Unfortunately, my beach and reading time are limited through July because I am studying for the bar, but I am already collecting books to dive into when August hits!!

Nicol..."

Yes, fairly close to it! But we did have "mattresses" just not regular beds. The last one was over 35 feet, but not a fancy yacht by any stretch of the definition.

Add my name to the list of those that don't change reading habits over the summer. I also am not sure the value of these "summer" lists when, for half the world, it's winter.

Bas Bleu has some very unusual reading suggestions for summer:

https://blog.basbleu.com/2019/05/29/s...

I already have Stella by my sofa...I know the author! So thrilled to see her debut showing up in these blogs!

Summer of Hummingbirds definitely caught my eyea!

Theresa wrote: "Bas Bleu has some very unusual reading suggestions for summer:

https://blog.basbleu.com/2019/05/29/s...

I already have Stella by my sofa...I know the author! So thrilled to s..."

Thank you, Theresa. I just spent an hour perusing the Bas Bleu catalog. I haven't spent any money yet.....

Jgrace wrote: " I just spent an hour perusing the Bas Bleu catalog. I haven't spent any money yet

Glad to oblige 😘

I get the mail version too ....I keep the recycle bin right next to the spot where I sort the mail. And am thankful for being too tired after work to be enticed leafing through it.

Digital version easy to ignore as it lands in my gmail Promotions folder. Avoiding temptation by using the email presorting functions...

I just picked up Madame Fourcade's Secret War

KateNZ wrote: "I always get miles more reading done in summer (particularly January, when very little is happening on the work front because most of the country is shut while everyone goes to the beach, lol). Del..."

Do you live on the South Island or in the mountains or is it that you don't have central heat like a Kiwi friend of mine on the North Island?

I live on the North Island, Karin (just outside Wellington). Central heating isn’t common here - some flash new houses have it but most don’t. Still, it never gets stupidly cold round here - it would be different up in the mountains but we’re coastal. And my cousins in Calgary just laugh when I whine about a cold snap, lol

KateNZ wrote: "I live on the North Island, Karin (just outside Wellington). Central heating isn’t common here - some flash new houses have it but most don’t. Still, it never gets stupidly cold round here - it wou..."

Yes, I can see why! An IRL friend of mine who just moved back to her hometown of Adelaide, South Australia late last August laughs when the folks there complain about their winter now--she spent the better part of 20 years in Massachusetts near Boston where it isn't as cold as Calgary.

BUT, without central heating, houses can feel cold in your winter temperatures.

And of course it can get cold in the mountains. I grew up near Vancouver, BC, Canada where it gets colder than your neck of the woods (we all have central heat), but rarely snow due to the gulf stream that comes between Vancouver Island and the mainland, but it's much colder at the tops of the coastal mountains.

I don't really change my reading habits either, but my strongest summer memory was being obsessed, and I do mean obsessed, with books by Sydney Sheldon. I roll my eyes at my past self.

Anita wrote: "I don't really change my reading habits either, but my strongest summer memory was being obsessed, and I do mean obsessed, with books by Sydney Sheldon. I roll my eyes at my past self."

Ha!ha! I had one summer with Nora Roberts.....I think I o'd on her books-have not picked up one since

Anita wrote: "I don't really change my reading habits either, but my strongest summer memory was being obsessed, and I do mean obsessed, with books by Sydney Sheldon. I roll my eyes at my past self."

I had that with James A. Michener.

I do want to defend Sidney...I still love If Tomorrow Comes