On my list of Favorite Simple Pleasures is this one: the filling of the reading basket each summer in anticipation of vacation. The basket is often packed weeks in advance as I “save” things for the beach. This year’s beach basket is an interesting medley: back issues of magazines I haven’t yet read (it’s a job perk and hazard that I subscribe to a boatload of magazines and often get lapped in my reading. The magazine on top is one of my favorites. I am really lucky to write for it and that issue has my story on learning how to sail. ), 5 books I need to read or re-read for the course I am teaching this fall on body image at the University of North Carolina- Charlotte, and then 4 books strictly for pleasure- 3 memoirs which I gravitate towards both as a reader and a writer because I get better by learning from others who write non-fiction and 1 novel that my sister loaned me as we have a bit of an informal book club going where we try to read the same books around the same time so we can talk about then when we chat on the phone. We did that this fall with 3 Jodi Picoult books (great books to discuss with another person because of the ethical issues that always come up in Picoult’s books) and decided to do it again this spring when Picoult’s Change of Heart came out about the same time as Jennifer Weiner’s Certain Girls. We each bought one and then mailed it to the other when we were done. Just looking at this picture makes me excited for the beach. Really, what is better than sitting with your chair just barely in the ocean reading? Don’t worry– the sunscreen is packed, too. A sunburn ruins my ability to do my favorite thing in the world so I can’t run any risk!
What are you reading this summer?
Girl, you weren’t kidding when you said you were set for your vacation! LOL I pack my mags and books FIRST when I’m going on vacation 🙂