Friday five: oh, the places I'll go (in a book)

This week, a Summer Reading Friday Five from Songbird, who writes:

Back in the day, before I went to seminary, I worked in the Children's Room at the Public Library, and every year we geared up for Summer Reading. Children would come in and record the books read over the summer, and the season included numerous special and celebratory events. As a lifelong book lover and enthusiastic summer reader, I find I still accumulate a pile of books for the summer.

Girl, this one's close to my heart! And I remember Mrs. Waldhauser, the children's librarian at our branch library, very fondly. She encouraged my love of books and made the library one of my favorite places. Seemed like a miracle that I could just take the books home for FREE. (Sort of like Francie's reaction in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, now that I think about it, but she had a much less congenial librarian!)

Anyway...

1) Do you think of summer as a particularly good season for reading? Why or why not?

I usually have more time for reading in the summer, though I'm a person who'll be reading two pages as I'm in line at the bank--I'll make it work somehow. But the slower pace of summer is a luxury. I'll take 3 books along on a weekend camping trip, just to be sure I don't run out of material. :-) Sitting on our deck with a book and a tall diet Coke is kind of great, as well.

2) Have you ever fallen asleep reading on the beach?

Nope--can't read at the beach. Too much light, and all I want to do is watch and listen to the water. But, as I've mentioned before, I love to read in the hammock at the lake, and I do nod off a bit there!

3) Can you recall a favorite childhood book read in the summertime?

Where do I START? A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Little Women, lots of Judy Blume and Dr. Seuss and the Peanuts gang, my mom's old Bobbsey Twins books (when I'd read everything else; they were a bit treacly for me)...

4) Do you have a favorite genre for light or relaxing reading?

Eclectic! David Sedaris makes me laugh; Anne Lamott and Madeliene L'Engle write beautiful, real spiritual memoir; Jodi Picoult writes a good, frothy page-turner; anything by Wendell Berry; Kent Haruf and Leif Enger write prose that's like honey from a jar. Anything that explores the reasons that humans do what we do interests me. On the rare occasion that things are really quiet, I'll go to poetry...Maya Angelou, Rita Dove, Walter Brueggeman's psalms, too many to list, really.

5) What is the next book on your reading list?

The proverbial stack next to the bed is actually several stacks; I've lost track of 'em all! I want to read these, for sure:

• Take This Bread (Sara Miles)
• So Brave, Young and Handsome (Leif Enger)
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames (David Sedaris)
• Madeleine L'Engle's Crosswicks cycle (re-read)
• The Memory of Old Jack (Wendell Berry)

That's just the first layer. Anything on the "Longing in my heart" list in the sidebar could show up here at any time...

Gotta go read now. I'm in my happy place. :-)