Comments on: The Lazy, Hazy Reading Days of Summer

By: Kathleen Popa

Kathleen Popa — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:09:33 +0000

Oh, Debbie. You make me want to stop everything and curl up with a good book and get lost for weeks and weeks. I remember the year I read Little Women and became Jo March. Didn’t like Jo’s Boys so much – like the young Jo, I wondered why everything had to change – why did she have to grow up, get married, get busy and become the responsible one instead of the dreamy girl in her writer’s hat?

A book that brought the summertime feeling back to me in my adulthood was Gilead. That book will slow your breathing and your clock and you will actually enjoy the languid passing of the minutes. Best read on the porch while the sprinklers are going.

By: Linda Camacho

Linda Camacho — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:34:39 +0000

Like you, Debbie, summer was for reading! I would get a stack of books, pile them beside my bed with the goal of reading them all before summer ended. I loved all books but mainly stuck to any subject that dealt with animals. I loved “The Yearling,” Old Yeller,” “Call of the Wild,” “Where the Red Fern Grows.” One book, that I’m sure not many have read, was “Bambi.” It was not written as a childrens book. Wonderful book! I would recommend it to anyone. I did branch out when I was about 14 and read “Gone With the Wind,” which I absolutely loved!! I still love to read but my taste has moved on to Christian Fiction. All I know it that if you loved reading as a child, you love reading as an adult, and vice versa. Thank you for a beautiful post that took us back to carefree days. Days we didn’t have to worry about a job, what to make for dinner, or how we would pay the rent. Days spent just reading, letting our imaginations take us on wonderful journeys.

By: Debbie Stover

Debbie Stover — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:05:14 +0000

The book series that comes to mind immediately when I think of summer reads is “The Box Car Children”. As a third grader in the mountains of West Virginia and the beloved city of Beckley, my teacher, Mona Woods, would have us rest with our heads on our desk as she read a chapter each and every day. I would be taken away to the woods and an old box car where young children who had been orphaned lived together with their siblings. In the school yard during recess, we would play “The Box Car Children” under the shade trees along the fence line. I recently visited the old school yard and the tree line is still there after all these years. As an adult, I passed the love of these books along to my own daughter who loved the characters as much as I did. I don’t remember all the characters names but my granddaughter is named Violet. And one-year old Violet is going to be as memorable a charcter as in the books!

By: Debbie Thomas

Debbie Thomas — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:40:40 +0000

Thanks, ladies. I really enjoyed revisiting those times. It’s funny how we don’t realize what we have at the time. Well, but maybe I did!

By: Latayne C Scott

Latayne C Scott — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:41:46 +0000

Loved this post! Because I didn’t live near a library until I was in the 5th grade, I read the same books I owned over again, seven times each: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, Little Women, Little Men, Treasure Island. I read them under a weeping willow tree where no one could see me. I was rarely in trouble but when I was, my mother punished me by withholding a new book. I remember mournfully seeing The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes sitting on my mother’s nightstand for a week. Nearly killed me. Any Sherlock Holmes book to this day feels like forbidden fruit.

By: Sharon K. Souza

Sharon K. Souza — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:28:58 +0000

Debbie, what a beautiful post. I was right there with you, saharing every summer-day experience. You took me right along with you. Like you, I loved nothing more than a visit to the library, bringing home my treasures, and immersing myself in the stories. For a moment, you gave me back those feelings.

By: Rachelle Sperling

Rachelle Sperling — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:28:22 +0000

Thank you for your beautiful post. In your final paragraph you sum it up so well. The thing I struggle to hold onto in these grown up days of calendars and schedules is my sense of wonder. It is hard to hold on to that wonder of being fully alive and in those fleeting moments when I rediscover that wonder again it is indescribable the impact it has on my life and my walk with Christ. Thanks for awakening that desire again in my today.

A few of my favorite childhood books were: Osprey Island by Anne Lindbergh, A Little Princess, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Black Stallion series and the Boxcar Children novels.

By: Bonnie Grove

Bonnie Grove — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:01:11 +0000

Sigh.
I can’t think. The beauty of this post has robbed me of my sensibilities.

By: Debbie Thomas

Debbie Thomas — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:39:38 +0000

Thank you for reminding me about L.M. Montgomery! I started with Magic for Marigold. Watership Down and Tolkien came later for me, but I think I understood them a bit better as an adult.

By: ariel

ariel — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:53:57 +0000

Watership Down. Anything Tolkien or Lewis. Piers Anthony was a perennial favorite. As was L.M. Montgomery. I never spent a great deal of time reading YA novels thanks to my parents who were both voracious readers. I went from chapters books straight into Dick Francis and Stephen King and George MacDonald. And while I plan on easing my children in a bit slower to the world of adult fiction, I can’t help but smile at how I got my eclectic reading tastes.