Summer Reading

If you have a vacation coming up, come to the library to stock up on books to read while you're swinging in a hammock or sitting on a dock. Most of the major newspapers, and NPR, publish a summer reading list or multiple lists, but generally speaking these books are more recently published ones that may be in high demand. Your best bet for recommendations is a general list that covers titles from an timeframe other than "recent." The New York Times listed "The Ten Best Books of 2010," in December 2010. The Boston Globe published a list to cover "The Decade's Best Books," back in December 2009. Or, you could look into an even more comprehensive list such as "Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the Century," or "Modern Library's 100 Best Novels." The Library of Congress has a list titled, "Books that Shaped America," which has American classics, such as To Kill a Mockingbird [F LEE], as well as some quite unexpected titles such as James D. Watson's The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA [572.86 WAT].

The "hot" book this year, and I mean that in more ways than one, is Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James and the other two books in the trilogy. I'm not going to recommend them, but I will recommend a nifty graphic titled "101 Books To Read This Summer Instead of 50 Shades of Grey," which will lead you to other titles to consider [note: click on the graphic to make it larger].

There's plenty to read if you don't restrict yourself to the latest bestseller. And there are a plenty of places to look for recommendations if you don't already have a title in mind.