Summer Reading

I'm hoping to have a Book of the Summer again. It's been a long time since a book came and got me in the summer heat, put a schhhhhpell on me, enthralled me from beginning to end. Oh, I know, the new Harry Potter is coming out, and I'll read that one feverishly whenever Young'un puts it down -- but that's not what I'm talking about. There have been books I've happened upon in the summertime, just by chance browsing in the library or bookstore, that instantly became favorites. There's something about the summer that's conducive to this.

For example, there was the summer of 1983. I'd been going to college for the past seven months straight: mini-mester, spring semester, mini-mester, and summer semester. I was racing against time; trying to get my AAS in Data Processing and get a job before then-hub's unemployment ran out. At the end of July, though, I finally had a month off, with no classes, and plenty of time to lie in the sun and read. At this time I discovered Endless Love. The movie sucked, but the book is absolutely incredible!

Another good summer read is Laguna Heat -- a noir beauty set in Orange County, California. When I lent it to my mom, I said, "I envy you. You're about to read this book for the first time, an experience I can never have again."

A chance encounter brought me together with one of my favorite books of all time. Firstborn and I had walked to the grocery store one hot summer day, and as we waited in the checkout line I glanced over the paperback book rack... and Fuel-Injected Dreams caught my eye. This is a fabulous book that I never tire of re-reading.

The granddaddy of all my obsessive summer reads is The Other Side of the Sun, which I first read the summer after I graduated from high school. I've practically got it memorized by now, and I love every word of it.

For something more recent, there's The Houdini Girl, yet another in the finish-it-and-start-again category. I liked it so much that by the time I returned it to the library, I had it on order from Amazon.

So, will this summer bring me another new favorite book? I hope so, because it's a wonderful feeling, and it's been too long since I had the pleasure.