While Summer doesn't officially begin in US until June 21, there is something about June 1 as an unofficial kickoff to the summer season. And, summer always means that I want to read more. I've even pledged to start tracking and reporting on what I'm reading in my weekly newsletter if you'd like to follow along to get all my summer reading picks.
I think my call to more reading in the summer is not just about the perception of more time given the bright sunny light well into the evening. I think it is also a hold over from the awards I could earn from teachers for having my parents sign off I did daily reading time as a kid. While I learned early on that reading is its own reward, I also love a good game or challenge to push my boundaries a bit - and maybe win some fun stuff.
If you also want to read more this summer, here are a few of my favorite tips to help you get started.
Design Your Summer
While not reading specific, it's easy to feel the excitement of Memorial Day roll around and look forward to vacations, special time spent with family, reading, days at the pool, gardening and more. Yet, what has often happened to me is I get to Labor Day and I realize I missed out on so many things I wanted to do. Why? Because things that can happen at any time at all often never happen (a paraphrase of a Gretchen Rubin line). That's why, at the beginning of most seasons - summer included - I like to spend a few minutes jotting down my ideas of what I want to accomplish during that season. This has become a fun way to mark the solstice and equinox. If you want some more thoughts on this concept, the idea came from, as you might expect, Gretchen Rubin. This blog post from Rubin contains a lot of resources on designing your summer which could apply to any season.
Check Your Local Library's Summer Reading Program
Many adults think reading programs are only for kids, but a lot of local libraries also have summer reading programs for adults. My library's reading program this summer is all about reading outdoors. I'm excited to tag some of the many places I'll be this summer with the tag #ReadOutsideIndyPL as I read inside and out!
While you're checking out your library's website, you might want to see what other classes and programs they offer in the summer. The Indianapolis library has a wonderful seed bank program as well as walking stories where you can do a trail walk while reading a story on one of our local trails. I'm looking forward to checking out the trail stories this summer.
Participate in the Beanstack App Challenge
The Indianapolis Library system uses the Beanstack App (Web, Google Play, Apple) to have people track their summer reading. When you sign up for a Beanstack account you can see if your library has a program right from inside the app. If your library doesn't have a reading program, you can still use the app and participate in their annual challenge.
Signing up for a Beanstack Account and finding your library is pretty simple, but I thought I'd walk you through it.
After you install the Beanstack app on your phone, open it and click the "Let's Go" button.
Click the At my library, school, or bookstore to search for your program.
Then click Find a Site (not sure why they made this two steps)
In the line at the top of the screen enter the name of your city or the name of your library (if not named after your city) and click the magnifying glass. Then, click the name of your library.
This was the most confusing part for me. You need a Beanstack account which is NOT your library account. If you don't already have a Beanstack account, create one using the Sign up link at the bottom of the screen. If you do have a Beanstack account, go ahead and log in on this screen.
Once you've logged in, you'll see this screen which welcomes you to the app. This is the screen you'll return to in order to start a new reading session - just click the + sign button.
To sign up for a challenge, you need to scroll down just a bit on the home screen until you see Current Challenges and the See Available Challenges button.
What challenges are available will be determined by your local library. You can click that button to see what's available but Beanstack seems to always have an annual challenge going on.
Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide
I've been a long time follower of Modern Mrs. Darcy aka Anne Bogel. Her summer reading guide is something I enjoy reading through. While I'm not that good at reading fiction, I love her descriptions and almost always try to read at least one fun fiction read in the summer.
Most years Anne also publishes an annual Reading Life Challenge but in 2022 she didn't because, "you don't need another challenge. Not in your life, and definitely not in your reading life." She was right but if you want a load of inspiration for your next read you can check out past reading challenges and check out her podcasts and weekly roundups of book suggestions.
AudioFile Summer Reading Program
While this is technically a "teen" program, I've been enjoying this program for the last several summers and it usually fuels me with enough audio books to enjoy for the entire year.
Each summer, AudioFile releases two audio books each week which are free to subscribe to and listen at any time. You do have to remember to go log in each week and download that week's books and once the week is over you can't go back and grab past releases. There are several books on this summer's list that I am really looking forward to downloading and listening to.
What are your favorite summer reading resources? Please share in your replies. Or, tell me the best fiction book that you recommend for someone who is suffering from a long fiction drought.
Images in this post were either created by me using Adobe Spark or were screenshots taken with my phone. This article was originally posted on Medium in a slightly modified form to better suit that platform.