For most people summer seems to be a time for activities, road trips, and the great outdoors. Not for me. For me summer has always been a time to unplug the phones, lock the doors, and hide away in the darkest corner I could find with a flashlight and as many books as I could carry.
When I was in school summer was my cherished time. All that time wasted during the school year on assigned books and math worksheets (not that I actually did many of those assignments, come to think of it) gave way during the summer months to uninterrupted, unadulterated reading. My parents and friends knew better than to bother me. I would take cartloads of books to the downstairs guest room in my parents house and set up camp, coming up only for meals, and that only occasionally.
Now that I am older, this hermitous instinct that takes over my brain from late May to early September gets me into trouble. I lose friends who think that my lack of communication means I have become a snob and don’t have time for them anymore. My children wear their pajamas all day long and eat cereal bars and macaroni and cheese for every meal. (My children obviously love this aberrant habit of mine and doubtless wish it would manifest itself throughout the entire year.) My work–well, my work gets done, but reluctantly; while I, like the dog in the old adage, curse this distraction that ironically allows me to buy the very books which tempt me away from it. And my blog…. well, obviously, my blog languishes. This blog post is my apology to my readers, and my plea for understanding and forgiveness.
I have, however, been able to burn through a number of books so far this summer, some bad, some good, some excellent; and I can’t wait to tell you all about them. Here is a preliminary list of some of the books I’ve read in the past few weeks, including the ones I have on my plate right now:
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Southern Vampire Series (first 3 books) by Charlaine Harris
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
Turbulent Souls by Stephen J. Dubner
Choosing a Jewish Life by Anita Diamante
Hamlet by Shakespeare
The Tales of Mutt-Bly Akarkin by Michael Chester
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Readings by Michael Dirda
So now I have to ask… How do you like to read? Do you have a favorite time of year to hole up and surround yourself with words? And, as always, my favorite question of all… what are YOU reading this summer?
Bkwurm 
LOVED The Chosen. Curious as to whether The Count was a bad, good or excellent one….
You're a book blogger, I think we all understand sometimes you need to step away from the keyboard and just read! So excited that you read 'The Count of Monte Cristo', which is absolutely a summer read (you need lots of time to follow the Count's adventures). Now that I work full time winter and January tend to be when I have time to fly through books on a continuous reading spree (Jan is my birthday month and I usually try to take at least three days off for that).