Summertime reading is different than reading the rest of the year.We as a people tend to give ourselves permission to take a break from the respectable, responsible grind of reading for work or school or just to learn. Summer is the time to indulge in the “beach read”, those books that let you escape. They let you be somebody else, to go on adventures through time and space. Because of all the different activities to be involved in, we find our attention fragmented. Unless we have extended periods of uninterrupted time, like a long car trip, we need a read that we can pick up and put down to take care of the distractions.
For me, this summer’s reading has had to be be something that if I only have 10 minutes to read right now and I won’t get back to it until tomorrow before bed, it will still be okay. It will be the kind of story that won’t require me to maintain an extended train of thought. If I have time to press on in the story because I am being carried along by the adventure, great! But if I can only read a page or two (at least enough to get a scene finished), well I will still be okay because I at least got a little read time in.
My summertime reading this year has been revisits of old friends mixed in with the discovery of some new authors, who I will share about at another time. Sweeping romances, cozy mysteries, cookbooks, and specialty diets. Oh, and a few motivational business books too. A friend of mine, Randy Dean released his book, Radiance, earlier this year. I had read through the week it came out and have it on my pile of books to re-read. My plan is to do that by the end of September. Notice I am giving myself permission to wait until after serious reading time starts again to accomplish this goal.
So what has been you favorite beach read so far this summer?