| By Teresa Brown | July 13, 2009 |
I’m a child of summer. As a Floridian with my birthday on the summer solstice, how could any season but summer be my favorite? Long days spent riding bikes, long evenings doing cartwheels in the front yard, long Sunday afternoons spent at the beach or skiing on the lake, are the things made my summers perfect. Oh, and how could I forget waiting out the raucous thunderstorms with a good book? In fact, some of those summer reads were so great, so consuming, that I’d forgo the bike rides to stay inside reading after the rain stopped and sun came back out.
Those books of summer cooled me down, took me to other places and introduced me to new friends. I remember how Joan Aiken had me shivering along with the characters in “The Wolves of Willoughby Chase” even though the temperature outside my house was boiling the thermometer at about ninety-eight degrees.
Or how the cool misty mornings of “Beautiful Joe” felt so real to me, that I pretended we had a barn in our suburban backyard instead of a swing set so I could find a poor, mistreated dog to rescue.
Then there was the summer I finally read “Gone With Wind” and felt like I’d been born in the wrong century. Oh, fiddle-dee-dee!
How about you? Did you spend your summer with the required reading list, or maybe with Nancy Drew? How about Donna Parker and Cherry Ames?Or in Sweet Valley? Or with Misty of Chincotogue?
Share some of your favorite summer reads from childhood or later. We can all use some new ideas for what to read pooside, lakeside, beachfront, dockside, or just chilling on the sofa beneath air conditioner.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:10 am
In the days before AC, reading proved a great way to beat the heat. Under a nice, shady tree, in a hammock or on lounge chair, joined by friends like Cherry Ames and Nancy Drew, the heat meant little as you enjoyed the time spent together. Heidi came and brought Black Beauty, Tom Sawyer, My Friend Flicka, and Big Red. Little Women and Little Men also came to visit, as did many historical figures in the biographies I consumed so voraciously.
Today reading time is harder to come by, but I thank you for the step back. I have a huge TBR pile. Time, I think, to put a dent in it.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Hi Gwynlyn, You’re right, it’s much harder to find time to read these days. But when we do, the magic is still there, isn’t it?
July 13th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I spent ten years living in Florida too and waiting out the thunder storms as well as the sweltering heat. I read constantly. I remember being given the Lord of the Rings Trilogy one summer in exchange for babysitting. I read them in under a week.
Most of the books I read as a kid were my fathers. Sydney Sheldon, Harold Robbins, Wilbur Smith (his old stuf) Jeffry Archer, Robert Ludlum and the like. I was the kid who had books taken away from her at school. I just thank God my mother was never much of a reader and had no clue what was within those pages.
I was a book-a-day reader until deadlines and a ballerina turned my life upside-down. I feel as if I’ve been on a reading diet. My TBR pile is overflowing and I’m in need of a week of constant thunderstorms.
July 13th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Robin,
My mom was not a big reader either, and later on when I began to venture into the library at large, I found tons of good stuff that she would’ve had a fit over! Because of that lack of censorship, I think my love of reading grew, and I’m too terribly warped!
July 13th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I remember reading the British series, Doctor in the House. Another summer, I settled in with several Edgar Rice Burroughs novels (the old Ace books with the cool covers) about a prehistoric land at the earth’s centre.
Hey, I’m reading a fabulous book at the moment – Too Hot to Handle by our dear Robin Kaye.
My bedside table is stacked with books, and it’s times like these I wish I was a speed reader.
Gail
July 13th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I never had a summer reading list for school, Teresa–at least not that I knew off.
I didn’t truly learn to love reading until I was in high school–I would sneak-read in class when I supposed to be listening. During the summer, I was usually too busy doing things to read. As an adult, my kids were always around during the summer. I’m more of a WINTER reader.
July 13th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Gail and Laurie, thanks for sharing your summer reading adventures. I did read “Tarzan of the Apes” one summer when my cousin finsished with it. And I didn’t have a required reading list for summer either, but my kids did. Sometimes I worry that’s why they don’t really enjoy reading the way I do. My mom wisely signed me up for a young readers book club after she found me reading my way through the encyclopedia! That’s where I discovered so many great books, including some I’m just remembering, like “The Incredible Journey.” How could I have forgotten that one?
Everyone, thanks for sharing!
July 13th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Teresa – I think you’re right about the lack of censorship fanned my love of reading. Though I’m warped, I don’t think I’m warped in a bad way.
Gail~ I’m so glad you’re enjoying Too Hot to Handle. Even though both my books are sold out in the warehouse, I was able to get my hands on 25 copies of Too Hot to Handle and 5 of Romeo, Romeo to donate and sign at the literacy signing. I’m really looking forward to it!
July 13th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Great discussion, Teresa! Sorry I’m so late to the party!
My family was just the opposite–all avid readers. The one store all us kids had credit was our local bookstore. We could go in there anytime and buy what we wanted on my dad’s account. It was heaven!
One summer in college, I set my mind to reading all those books you’re supposed to read. Some I couldn’t make it through the first 50 pages, but others I loved–The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Farewell To Arms.
Do you sense a trend? All the exciting, swashbuckling, romantic advenures. Those are still the kind of books I love to read.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:21 am
It’s winter here, which is even better weather for snuggling up with a book. As a kid, I read all hours of the day. We always used to visit the used bookstore in whatever place we holidayed in and I’d spend pocket money on anything and everything. I loved big fat fantasy and big fat romance and old fashioned girls books like Anne of Green Gables and What Katy Did and the Moonspinners.
These days my keeper shelf is overflowing. Some of my faves are Jenny Crusie, Lois McMaster Bujold, Terry Pratchett, Susan Elizabeth Phillips. All good, pacy, bity reads.
July 14th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Alix and Melanie,
Glad you stopped by to share your favorite summer books! Alix, I still have quite a few of those “books you need to read” on my list. I’m impressed that you read so many of them on your own. Melanie, I think our keeper shelves must be twins!
And looking back over the posts and comments, I realized I made a typo in my post about my mom not censoring my reading–that should read “I’m NOT too warped.” Just wanted to clear that up.