Hi readers. How’s your summer reading shaping up? I’ve converted the National Book Foundation’s Summer Reading Adventure into this copy-and-paste list to make it easier to participate in this Thread (🧵on Substack = Discussion). I’d love to know what you’re enjoying this summer. You can click through from email to the browser or app to participate in the comments. I’ll share my updated list there, too.
Listen to an audio book
Watch a book-to-screen adaptation
Read outdoors
Reread a favorite childhood book
Connect with your fellow book lovers (check this one off by participating today!)
Pilgrimage to a literary site (A literary center, writer’s home, or landmark near, far or accessible online)
Create something inspired by a book you read (meal, playlist, *beverage* etc)
Read a book in a new-to-you genre
Swap a favorite book with a friend
Read or listen to an interview with a living writer
Attend a literary event— virtual or in-person
Visit a local bookstore or library and ask for a recommendation
Today I’ll have a chance to make a pilgrimage to a literary site near where this photo was taken. It’s a spot where a very well-known Depression era author met his wife, who came up with the title for his most enduring work. I’ll come back and update my comment after I check it out. In the meantime, any guesses?
Hello fellow readers! This week I asked a book seller for a recommendation.
I recently injured myself trying to keep up with my children at the beach, but I need an older atlas for my project. So, last Wednesday found me using my good arm to drag a rickety metal step stool across three crowded rooms in a very dusty book shop so I could climb to atlases, which were waiting under old plastic shower curtains directly beneath the ceiling duct work. Found a a perfect specimen for $2, (less than 40 cents/lb.), and I think I saw a bat.
The book seller recommended the Piers Anthony Magic of Xanth series, which probably has 50 titles (so far) and I said I’d keep it in mind.
Wow! Precarious! Glad you found what you were looking for without further injury. Committing to a 50 title series would be huge. Can’t say I have heard of that one!
OOOO this is so fun!!! Perhaps no surprise– when i was young I LOVED summer reading challenges at the local library. You'd sign up and get a big cardstock poster to track every book you read, and won prizes for getting to certain milestones. I didn't care about the prizes, i just loved to tally up as many books as I could over the summer.
It's such a core, nostalgic memory for me– and i've been tapping into that by forgetting about my goodreads TBR and heading to my local library and just browsing... picking up anything that looks good. I've got plans to head over there this sunny afternoon and pick up a few books on hold– which I i'll then start outside on my back porch, feeling like a kid again. Hoping everyone else gets to enjoy something similar!
Yes, so fun to feel like a kid again. I do miss those days of just picking up a book at the library because it sounded good-- not because I'd heard anything about it. And librarians' recommendations were the best, too.
Here's my list so far and I'd love to see yours added to the comments, too!
✅ Listen to an audio book (as a family we've been listening to The Eyes & The Impossible by Dave Eggers)
â•Watch a book-to-screen adaptation
✅ Read outdoors (most recently, I read some of I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself by Glynnis MacNicol in a hammock)
â•Reread a favorite childhood book
✅Connect with your fellow book lovers (check this one off by participating today!)
â•Pilgrimage to a literary site (A literary center, writer’s home, or landmark near, far or accessible online)
â•Create something inspired by a book you read (meal, playlist, *beverage* etc)
✅Read a book in a new-to-you genre (Master, Slave, Husband, Wife by Ilyon Woo-- it's not that I've never read Historical Biography but I struggle to remember the last one I finished. I dabbled in Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff which also won a Pulitzer, but I'm not sure I ever finished it. Maybe I will try again!)
â•Swap a favorite book with a friend (Anyone want to swap for a paperback copy of Trust by Hernan Diaz? We ended up with two of these in my household by mistake.)
✅Read or listen to an interview with a living writer
â•Attend a literary event— virtual or in-person
â•Visit a local bookstore or library and ask for a recommendation
Hello fellow readers! This week I asked a book seller for a recommendation.
I recently injured myself trying to keep up with my children at the beach, but I need an older atlas for my project. So, last Wednesday found me using my good arm to drag a rickety metal step stool across three crowded rooms in a very dusty book shop so I could climb to atlases, which were waiting under old plastic shower curtains directly beneath the ceiling duct work. Found a a perfect specimen for $2, (less than 40 cents/lb.), and I think I saw a bat.
The book seller recommended the Piers Anthony Magic of Xanth series, which probably has 50 titles (so far) and I said I’d keep it in mind.
Wow! Precarious! Glad you found what you were looking for without further injury. Committing to a 50 title series would be huge. Can’t say I have heard of that one!
OOOO this is so fun!!! Perhaps no surprise– when i was young I LOVED summer reading challenges at the local library. You'd sign up and get a big cardstock poster to track every book you read, and won prizes for getting to certain milestones. I didn't care about the prizes, i just loved to tally up as many books as I could over the summer.
It's such a core, nostalgic memory for me– and i've been tapping into that by forgetting about my goodreads TBR and heading to my local library and just browsing... picking up anything that looks good. I've got plans to head over there this sunny afternoon and pick up a few books on hold– which I i'll then start outside on my back porch, feeling like a kid again. Hoping everyone else gets to enjoy something similar!
Yes, so fun to feel like a kid again. I do miss those days of just picking up a book at the library because it sounded good-- not because I'd heard anything about it. And librarians' recommendations were the best, too.
Here's my list so far and I'd love to see yours added to the comments, too!
✅ Listen to an audio book (as a family we've been listening to The Eyes & The Impossible by Dave Eggers)
â•Watch a book-to-screen adaptation
✅ Read outdoors (most recently, I read some of I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself by Glynnis MacNicol in a hammock)
â•Reread a favorite childhood book
✅Connect with your fellow book lovers (check this one off by participating today!)
â•Pilgrimage to a literary site (A literary center, writer’s home, or landmark near, far or accessible online)
â•Create something inspired by a book you read (meal, playlist, *beverage* etc)
✅Read a book in a new-to-you genre (Master, Slave, Husband, Wife by Ilyon Woo-- it's not that I've never read Historical Biography but I struggle to remember the last one I finished. I dabbled in Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff which also won a Pulitzer, but I'm not sure I ever finished it. Maybe I will try again!)
â•Swap a favorite book with a friend (Anyone want to swap for a paperback copy of Trust by Hernan Diaz? We ended up with two of these in my household by mistake.)
✅Read or listen to an interview with a living writer
â•Attend a literary event— virtual or in-person
â•Visit a local bookstore or library and ask for a recommendation