Summer and Reading

Since summer has finally arrived and is staying for longer than a brief spell to Spokane, I thought I would ponder a bit about the connection between summer and reading.  Naturally, reading is an activity that can be enjoyed year round no matter what the weather, but somehow summer and reading seem to go together like hot dogs and beans, smiles and sunshine, a T-shirt and jeans...well, you get the idea.  Go into Barnes and Noble or any other place where books can be bought or borrowed and you'll see displays advertising "Summer Reads," "Beach Reads," or something else of the sort.  Have you ever seen advertisements for "Winter Reads" or "Books for the Slopes"?  I guess reading while skiing would be a safety hazard compared to doing it while lounging on a beach.

For kids and teens, summer is a crucial time for reading.  With school being out for 3 months, developing readers can postpone their progress or, even worse, lose the skills they've acquired during the previous year.  Summer is a time when kids and teens can keep up their skills or even move ahead.  It's also a time when they can read whatever they choose rather than read materials their teachers require them to read.  I remember when I was a kid I couldn't wait until the school year was over so I could read whatever I wanted without worrying about writing book reports or taking tests.  And in those days when you didn't have DVD players or even VCRs (wow--this is making me sound old!) and cable TV was something only the rich kids had, going to the library and getting a stack of books to read was a world of entertainment.

I realize that there are plenty of things to do nowadays to keep entertained, but (and maybe this is the librarian in me speaking) sometimes it's nice to unplug from all the technology and relax doing a real summer thing--lie under a shady tree or a beach umbrella with a good book.

2 cents from the perch.