Summertime.
For me it’s about family time, lazy beach days, simple meals, late night campfires, and READING! What would summer be without a stack of books to devour? I can’t even imagine.
Little confession. I don’t usually read much highbrow literature in the summer. Give me road trips, sappy love stories, and thin texts I can rip through in a day or two. Save the deep philosophical tomes for a cold winter’s night in front of a roaring fire, tucked under a warm throw. If it has a character I can relate to or a carefree theme I can get behind, I’m sold.
Summer Reading
Last weekend’s picks mostly fit that bill; a love story, a road trip, but also some historical fiction (that ripped my guts out about WWII), and a look at how artists make the world a better place. I shed tears, laughed, thought about the world and my place in it, and smiled knowing there are others doing their part to make it more beautiful. I went from France, to the US, and Vietnam to Dublin. And I didn’t even leave my couch! Now that is what reading is all about. Armchair travelling at its finest.
The best part about all that reading is that ultimately, it makes me a better writer. What books grab me and won’t let go? How long before I am so immersed in the text that I can’t stop reading? What makes for compelling and believable characters that will stay with me long after I’ve turned the last page? That is the stuff I need to capture and channel in my own writing. And you know, I’m pretty sure that many a successful writer would agree…
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
― Dr. Seuss
A Writer's Take 