Every summer, I:
- Re-read The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- Re-read Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
- Get a big stack of magazines and spend a glorious weekend flipping through them poolside
Yep—those are my summer reading traditions. I couldn't say when they began, but they've probably been in effect for at least a decade. And during the cold, dark days of winter, I just have to close my eyes and think "beach reading" to get me through the months.
I asked around for other OOMers' summer reading traditions:
- Stephanie re-reads her Harry Potter collection every summer! Plus, she sets a goal for herself each year: "When I was leaving college after my freshman year I realized that I didn’t make enough time for books. I decided that summer would be my catch-up time and I would set a goal to read 20 books that summer. The next summer I read 40, and the next 50. Now, I’m making a goal to read 60 books this year! It started out as a fun summer tradition and now it has expanded throughout the whole year."
- Alex reads mysteries in the summer. Last year's picks were Gone Girl and What I Saw and How I Lied. This year, she's into Looking for Alaska. (She kindly requests no spoilers!)
- Kristen and Brittany say their only summer reading tradition is to read outside as often as possible! "There is nothing I look forward to more during the summer than finding a good spot in the park to plunk down and read for a few hours," Kristen says. "It doesn’t matter what the book is, just as long as there is sunshine involved!" she says.
- For Megan, summer means family time on the Cape, rifling through the stack of books her mom, who reads several at a time, brings with her. "I love to see what she's reading and inevitably snag a book to take to the beach or back with me to New York. Side note: my mom loves pretzels and eats them all the time (usually while reading or knitting) so I tend to find salt between the pages of books she's read."
And finally, I really like Mike's idea! He created the F.U.N. tradition back in high school:
- F = fiction
- U = unexpected
- N = nonfiction
He says, "Unexpected pushes me to try new books, genres, authors that I may not necessarily pick as my go-to’s during the year. This year, my Unexpected was reading Sci-Fi/Horror genre with The Girl with All the Gifts. Think Walking Dead meets coming-of-age novel. I am totally on the age of my seat the entire time, but loving it!"
What a great summer reading tradition! Do you have any? Please share them here!
