Thursday 25 June 2009

Booking Through Thursday-Summer Reading


Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), what is the most “Summery” book you can think of? The one that captures the essence of summer for you?
(I’m not asking for you to list your ideal “beach reading,” you understand, but the book that you can read at any time of year but that evokes “summer.”)

As usual with these questions I thought this would be easy, but when I actually came to write it, I couldn't think of anything! And I still can't. Maybe I just read miserable books! Not for books that actually evoke summer through their content anyway. I can think of books that I loved that I read in summertime, that, because they had such an effect on me, I will always associate with summer but that's not really the point of the question. I read The Moonstone on the beach, and when I think of that book, I always think of that particular holiday so in a way it does always evoke summer to me, but not through it's content. Another one like this is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I read that in Italy.

The only other one I can think of is one I read very recently, The Earth Hums in B Flat. For some reason I kept imagining it being sunny and summery throughout this book, even though the characters talk about it being cold and wet, and wearing coats. I have no idea what gave me a summery feel about it, perhaps it was just the rural welsh setting, or the fact that it was a fairly light read.

Oh, i've just thought of one! Again it's a relatively recent read though. The Hidden by Tobias Hill evokes summer quite well. The main character is running away from his life, and he takes this to the extreme and runs off to Greece to join an archaeological dig. It's only really the weather and the descriptions of Greece that gave me this feeling, but there it is! He actually ends up in a pretty desperate, almost cultish situation but its all in the sunshine! I thought of one!

2 comments:

Jacqueline C. said...

I've been meaning to get around to reading my copy of The Secret History. Maybe this is the incentive I needed. Here's my pick: http://eclecticbookhoarder.blogspot.com/2009/06/booking-through-thursday-hot.html

Anonymous said...

I am reading The Moonstone right now and I can't agree with you more that it's written for vacation read.

I also find myself perusing this chick lit type of summer romance novel. Ha! Never says never! It's called Sceneic Route.

For me summer is usually the time when I read a lot of mysteries.