Long before children earned Happy Meal prizes or game tokens in a summer reading program, I was a young summer reader in St. Joseph, Missouri, patiently wating in line while a volunteer would color 5 U.S.states (one for each book I had read) on my book reading poster. That was it….my final reward….a United States map with all the states colored in bright hues and designs. I proudly pasted that map in my scrapbook where it still remains to this day.
In an era of cell phones, palms, laptop compters and ipods (I own most of these!), the magic of reading is still a major part of life in the summer. It may be that silly novel you picked up at a used book store, or a book in your field of interest or professional study…..either way, it’s a way to unwind, disconnect, and relax. Check out a few links below or ask us for help finding something FUN to read this summer!
- Browse the library catalog for materials owned by Lamson.
- Summer reading favorites from National Public Radio
- Summer reading lists from commerical sites…..another great place to start.
Tell us about YOUR favorite summer reading book and/or memory.
6 Comments
I don’t know if it counts as summer reading, but I just finished Amoskeag, an oral history of the mills of Manchester NH where I now live. I’d been so ignorant of that piece of local history. Many of the stories reveal great pain and hardship, but also real strength and often a touch of humor.
Summer is the time for me to catch up on my manga. I spent a few weekends with Uraswawa’s Monster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_(manga)
As a book reviewer of fiction for Library Journal I came across a pretty intense book last week on a family in an Appalachian coal mining town called Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake. It is due out in October and promises from my opinion to be VERY popular.
DB
The summer is always a time to catch up on fiction. My childhood memories are of walking to the local branch of the county library and realizing I could choose what I wanted to read -no assigned reading! I finished the latest Harry Potter yesterday. It was a little sad, realizing this is the last book in the series.
Summer reading. For me it is a time to catch up on all the pleasure reading that I have been putting off due to my Master’s work. I have just finshed two Anita Shreve novels — “Body Surfing” and “A Wedding in December” — both good books just right for vacation reading on the beach! Historical Fiction is real favorite and I have recently re-read “Down the Common” by Ann Baer.
-JMG
I love reading these comments! Those summer days of reading books for prizes are over for me (naturally!), but I’ve been reading a long biography of Alfred C. Kinsey by James H. Jones. I HAD to read it after seeing the movie KINSEY and wondering what this man was really all about. At bedtime, I treat myself to (gasp!) silly Danielle Steele paperback novels that I pick up at the dump and then return or pass along to my neighbor.
I’m just about finished with Eugene Ostashevsky’s book of poems, “Iterature,” put out by Ugly Duckling Presse. Ostashevsky is Russian but wrote this book in English. One result of that is that he plays with language a lot, possibly a little too much sometimes. He has also been called an absurdist poet, a title that fits at times. There are some ridiculous lines, but at the same time there could by a line right after or before that is completely poignant.