Have You Lost That Summer Reading Feeling? 6 Ways to Get it Back

Back in the day, the library was my oyster. On any given weekday in the summer, instead of slathering my gangly limbs with SPF 4 and playing Marco Polo, I preferred to lose a whole afternoon to the musty stacks of my neighborhood branch. I had surely spent more than enough time at the card catalog throughout the school year, researching for one project or another, so summer was my time to wander the 800s aimlessly, and, depending on my mood, get lost in classic and/or salacious novels. These were the summers I finally understood what “love triangle” and “Beatnik” meant. Glued to the vinyl seat of my worn study chair, I was capsized and marooned on distant shores, I paced bleak English moors while my emotions raged inside, and I fell more than a little bit in love with Rhett Butler.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been whisked away by that summer reading feeling, and this year, I have a plan to get it back. Are you on board?
Just add candy: While I was busy building character and vocabulary, I had little time to consider the inherent evil of empty calories. As long as I could sneak it past the watchful librarians, I typically squeezed a small bag of Twizzlers or gummy worms in my backpack—enough to carry me through 10 chapters, at least. It’s an ornery practice I left behind years ago, but I’m seriously considering swapping out my usual latte for some Swedish Fish this year—and I urge you to do the same.

Pick novels by an author you haven’t read, or in a genre you don’t usually choose: Remember when you were a kid and you’d pick up and read anything you could get your hands on? If you really want to get swept away, there’s nothing better than losing yourself in a (fictional) foreign land. This summer, I am challenging myself to some genre-hopping, and will be choosing thrillers (like David Baldacci’s The Last Mile) and historical accounts (like Nathanial Philbrick’s Valiant Ambition) to accompany me on long, hot afternoons.
Go hardcover: Just for this summer, go back to the basics, and take your hardback book wherever you go. Sure, the pages are going to get salty, sandy, and wet, and the spine will reek of Coppertone by the time you loan it to your mom, but something tells me that the summer reading feeling isn’t contained in an electronic device, and you’ll look pretty hardcore.
Don’t forget the hammock: Pick up the things that remind you of the summer afternoons of your youth, and insert them into your routine. You can make a trip to your porch a staycation, if you just add a glass of frosty lemonade and a personal fan. And then you can feel free to read the afternoon away!

Buddy system: If you’re a book nerd, then I’m guessing you have a tribe. Challenge one of your literary pals to some entertaining summer reading. Lounge side by side with a book like Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest, and discuss the juicy parts afterwards.
Tune out: Adult Book Nerds, note the desultory adolescent with the “leave me alone” scowl, for he has demonstrated an amazing way to gain a few uninterrupted reading hours. Indeed, if we just practice, I believe each of us can perfect a courteous expression that tells the world we are immersing ourselves in an irresistible narrative, and there’s no possible way we can be bothered. I’m certain this is the silver bullet—there’s no better way to reclaim that long-lost summer reading feeling.