Here at Scholastic, when we hear the word “summer” we think of the typical things such as sunshine, beaches and outdoor dining, but above all else we get excited about one thing: summer reading! Tragically, summer is winding down to a close and the days of leisurely reading a book in the park are numbered (but trust me, that won’t stop us from adding to our reading lists).
We decided to check in with the On Our Minds team to see how their #summerreading went. In the roundup below, you’ll find some great book recommendations, some honest summer reading regrets and some surprises that people encountered along the way.
Looking back, how did your summer reading go overall?
- “Incredibly successful! I read 5 books (and counting): All three books in The Magicians series, Ragtime and The Interestings.”—Mike
- “I read a lot before bed this summer.”—Megan
- “I read 3 books in one week at the beach, including The Girl on the Train, which I read in one day. I'm currently in the middle of No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes, which is in my summer stack. I didn't get to Broken Monsters yet.”—Gina
- “This summer was productive. I made progress on PopSugar’s 2015 Reading Challenge, which I have been tracking on a Pinterest board. I am about 2/3 of the way through, which is on target since there are 4 months left to 2015.”—Deimosa
Did you read all of the books from your summer book stack?
- “My summer book stack went out the window! I somehow ended up reading lots of books that weren’t even on my radar when I made my list. I guess that’s the cool thing about books… There are always new ones to read.”—Morgan
- “I didn’t read Geek Love or The Glass Castle. Fail. BUT I read books that weren’t in my stack… Redemption!”—Megan
- “No… but there are still a few weeks left until it is technically fall! I just finished Black Sun Rising, loved I am Princess X and A Ring of Endless Light, read Shadowshaper and The Porcupine of Truth for our employee book club meetings, completed Go Set a Watchman in a day, and I am beta-reading a novel for a friend. There are a few other quick reads I got in, like The Carnival At Bray, Origin, George, and I’m sure there is something that I forgot.”—Deimosa
Do you have any regrets?
- “I’ve been saying for three whole summers now that I’m going to re-read the entire Harry series. And I haven’t yet. But I really want to!”—Morgan
- “I wish I read outside more often in the park or some green space. I mostly stuck to reading before bed or on mass transit.”—Mike
- “A book I read had all the hype this summer and it disappointed me. So yes, falling for the hype!”—Megan
- “I regret the train rides where I chose to nap instead of read. Precious reading time wasted!”—Deimosa
Did anything surprise you this summer?
- “Taking a few hours on Sunday at Riverside Park reading a good book and listening to boats sail by (with no errands) reminded me why summer is so great and how important it is to just give yourself a break from the everyday.”—Mike
- “Out of the blue I now receive not one but two copies of The New Yorker each month.”—Megan
- “I read a major-award-winning book that I shall not name, and did not like it. I spent a month on it this summer, and it felt like a total slog. Everyone else on the planet loved this book, and I usually like the books that win the big awards, so I just don’t get it.”—Julia
- “I looooooved A Ring of Endless Light – I cried! This is the first book that I have ever read by Madeline L’Engle (shameful, I know), and I have prose and graphic novel copies of A Wrinkle in Time. But it is all good; one of the check boxes on the PopSugar list is for ‘A book you own but have never read,’ so by the end of 2015 I will finish one or both of them.”—Deimosa
Now it’s your turn… How did your summer reading go?
Image via daspunkt
