Kat with a K

Summer Reading Thoughts

Yes, I still knit, but I haven't been that into it recently. Perhaps this is because it's currently 88 degrees in my apartment. Hmm. But anyway, that's why it seems like "All reading, all the time" around here recently. It will all balance out in the end, I promise.

A few Summer Reading Program notes: Yes, you can count audiobooks if you want to. Personally, I feel like audiobooks provide a completely different (and non-reading) experience, but I know not everyone agrees. So if you feel like you've read a book after listening to the audiobook, go ahead and count it.

Also, I wanted to make sure everyone knows that you can find everyone's progress, and the top ten number of books and pages, here. (The Summer Reading Program link at the top of the page goes there, too.) So far, Chris is leading both lists with nine books and 2379 pages. Everything should be up to date as of this afternoon, so if your link is wrong or I seem to be missing your reviews or something, let me know.

And now some personal ramblings: I read constantly, year round, but for some reason reading has always seemed more magical during the summer. This might be because summer vacation used to be a time to read practically all day if I wanted. Most of my happy "outside" summer memories are of reading in the hammock or on the swingset or at the beach, not of actually, you know, playing. And I still think it's unfair that everyone doesn't get summers off, by the way. I miss having time to read a book in a day.

I find that I want to read certain types of books more in the summer, too. Oddly, it seems that the two types are in a way diametrically opposed: classics and genre fiction. I read mysteries year round, but I'm much more likely to go for romance, sci fi, fantasy, and thrillers in the summer than any other time of the year. Right now, I'm particularly in the mood for epic fantasy, Nora Roberts, and maybe Mary Higgins Clark - I haven't read her in years. (I started reading her during a summer in middle school, though, so I guess this has been a trend with me for a while.)

And at the same time, I'm dying to read Austen, Vanity Fair, Gone with the Wind, Jane Eyre. I'm currently reading Rebecca, finally. Maybe this "Time to read the classics!" feeling comes from all those years of school summer reading lists. Maybe it has to do with my feeling through middle and high schools that summer was the time to actually learn things, since I didn't have all that time taken up by stupid boring school stuff. Hmm.

And speaking of summer reading lists, a fun anecdote to end with: A teenage boy and his mom came into the bookstore yesterday. They were looking for two books on his summer reading list. One of The Pearl, I think, and the other was Death Be Not Proud. Without really thinking, I said something like "That's upstairs in the Death section. I'll show you where it is."

The mother looked at me, aghast. "You have a death section?"