Nothing says “relaxation” more than a good book. Whether it’s a fascinating account of the lives or events of long ago or far away (or maybe just across town), or a fantastic voyage to other worlds, or a careful description of the latest scientific discoveries, let me lose myself in a good book.
Summer is especially good for reading (though if you live in a state with “weather”, winter’s are pretty good too – long nights, raging snow or freezing wind outside, a fire on the hearth, a lap blanket, it doesn’t get much better). Summer finds us traveling, sitting poolside (or in an aisle seat) for hours – what better time to catch up?
At the same time, though, tradition demands that summer reading entertain at least as much as it engages our deeper thinking selves. While War and Peace or Moby Dick might have their place on our winter nightstand, they feel out of place in our beach bag.
Or maybe not. Maybe you’re a Complete Works of Shakespeare and suntan lotion kind of person. Whatever your particular literary poison, you’ll have a chance to pick your pleasure if you’re today’s winner, to the tune of $100 at Amazon’s bookstore.
Today’s Sponsor is Meryl K. Evans, The Content Maven
Meryl Evans is a writer and blogger with tons of commercial and corporate writing experience. She’s the author of Brilliant Outlook Pocketbook and the co-author of Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites. And she’s written for a couple of games, like Fib-or-Not? and Meet, Mix, and Mingle. And check out her blog, Meryl’s Notes – she’s been blogging since mid-2000, longer than just about everyone I’ve met.
She likes words. And when we asked for sponsors for this here Great Big Summer Giveaway, she wanted to give you lots and lots of words. $100 worth, to be exact, chosen by you from the Amazon bookstore. So today’s winner will win a $100 gift credit to Amazon, courtesy of Ms. Evans.
How do you win?
Because today’s giveaway is all about relaxing, I’m not going to make you work too hard. Just let us know your favorite summer book in the comments on this post, with a short note about why you love it.
My favorite last summer was The Giver, by Lois Lowry. The Giver is a young adult book that I checked out for my step-son and ended up reading and loving myself. It’s an easy read – being directed at kids and all – but raises tough ethical questions about the individual’s responsibilities towards their society – and where those responsibilities end.
Make sure you enter a valid email address where asked – it won’t be shared publicly and we never send spam.
Entry for this contest will close at 12 NOON, PST, on Friday, the 29th of August. Winners will be chosen by random drawing – entries will not be judged. I will compile the best advice for a future post on reader’s recommendations, so by entering you give Lifehack permission to quote your comment. The prize will be sent direct from our sponsor.
Stay Tuned!
That wraps up the first week of the Lifehack Great Big Summer Giveaway, but we’re only halfway done! We’ll be giving away prizes related to the working life every day next week, including:
- Copies of ActiveWords which allows you to trigger Windows actions with keystrokes and word commands.
- A JoJo laptop bag from CareerBags, who offer a line of accessories expressly designed for career women.
- More gorgeous wallets from our good friends at dbclay.
- Copies of PhraseExpress v.5, a text snippets program to help you save time with repetitive tasks.
- “Files, Folders, and Tags” from Popular Productivity, which brings tagging to your desktop files.
- Two years of hosting from powerMonster under their monsterSlayer plan: 10 GB disk space and 150GB of traffic with an included domain name.
- The Ultimate Guy’s Computer Bags, made of Rawlings baseball glove leather, from Sports Accessories.
- A $100 Amazon gift credit from Ubernote.
- And more goodies from Vat19 , this time their Sterling Silver Wallet Pen.
Don’t forget to enter the rest of the contests in the Lifehack Great Big Summer Giveaway. And check back every day next week for more chances to win!
My best summer time reading book is (actually it’s my everytime reading book):
Sway by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
It’s a book of irresistible pulls of irrational behavior. It shows through true actions what can happen as a consequence of irrational behaviors. It is so interesting and keeps you hanging on every page…Very good book!!!
My favorite summer book is “A case of exploding mangoes” by Mohammand Hanif.
It’s a thrilling fictional account of people and circumstances leading to the assassination of Zia-ul-Haq, former president and military ruler of Pakistan. Gripping and unputdownable.
This summer, the title (so to speak) has to go to Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips. The characters (mostly the Greek pantheon) are bold and amusing, and the plot is driven by the characters themselves. A fairly quick read, but engaging.
Too Many: A Study of Earth’s Biological Limitations by Georg Borgstrom
I loved this book because it supported every last one of my beliefs from veganism to childfree. This book just made me more aware of my goals. Now I have backing for my beliefs.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” – Read it during school in 8th grade and during the summer in 9th grade. That book has just had more of an effect on my worldview and truly inspired me, with maybe an honorable mention to “12 Angry Men”, to go into law.
I just think it was beautiful they way Harper Lee wrote the novel, and there is some sort of mysticism that attracts me to it due to it being her last. It might be her way of going out on top – but it is still probably in the Top 5 books I’ve ever read and my #1 summer book, no contest.
Great contest! My favorite summer read is The Joy of Not Working by Ernie Zelinski. It’s funny and full of inspirational stories about people who found more joy when they finally quit jobs they hated or just tolerated to start doing the things they always wanted to do. They all did it in different ways, but the common thread is learning to love new things that are free or at least less expensive because they realized that’s where true happiness lies. Totally easy to read!
My favorite is Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. It’s a lucid, deep, dreamy story about two sisters growing up and growing apart under the care of a line of women relatives, and how all of these characters interact with ideas of domesticity.
My favorite summer book is James and the Giant Peach — It reminds me of the summer I spent with my niece when she was 6 and I was 14 – we read it together in a week. It was the best bonding time, and I love her curiosity regarding the strange world James had entered!
This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald
I’ve read this book at least 10 times and I keep noticing aspects that apply to different stages of my own life. Definitely a guys book, though.
The Mists of Avalon, hands down. A lengthy work that I can take the whole summer to read, spaced over a few light-weight NYT Best-Seller fiction works. Mmm…
My summer read is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the ill-named 5-volume trilogy, not the first book.)
I’ve read it who-knows-how-many times, and always during the summer.
Absolutely hilarious, until you get to the last book.
My favorite summer book so far is The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton. As a scientist who has studied cell behavior for 25 years, Dr. Lipton has come to some interesting conclusions about how environmental influences and not genes constitute the forces by which we are reflected in the world.
I have yet to read a book this summer, but one of my favorite books that has a summer kind of feel is Watership Down. A great adventure, wonderful characters, and a lot of fun. Can’t wait until my girls are old enough that we can read it together on summer break.
My favorite summer reading is “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel. Easy read, suspense filled, imaginative. It makes you think about the extra ordinary.
My favorite summer read has to be George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It’s a very basic, quick, and fun read, and there are so many things that you can get out of it.
The best 2008 summer book I have read so far is SAY YOU ARE ONE OF THEM by Uwem Akpan, a Jesuit priest from East Africa. I judge it the best not because it was a “fun” read, but rather it made me feel appropriately uncomfortable as it shared short stories about the tragic lives of several African children.
Mind Gym – an athlete’s guide to inner excellence. An excellent read about how our mind impacts our body. And its just well written – I read it in two frantic days of picking it up every second I could.
The Great Divorce by CS Lewis
Short read. Provokes imagination like few others. Causes you to think just enough to be challenged, but not too much that it’s no longer vacation.
My favorite book this summer was probably Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King. Reading King is generally safest when it’s pleasant and sunny. Hearts happens to have just the right feel of Americana to make it good summer reading in the vein of Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, with stories that weave in and out of his other work in ways that make you feel like you’re paying an awesome amount of attention to detail without requiring too much effort.
Favorite summer book??? I am a bookaholic, so it would be hard to pick a book for a season. My all time favorite book is Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Recent reads I highly recommend are: Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, and Alan Weisman’s World without Us. I love non-fiction and fiction. I am enjoying re-reading all of Carl Hiaasen’s wild books. And I do not want to say how many books I have waiting in the wings at home – both those I own and the ones checked out from the library.
Any of those mentioned would be a winner.
Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse is the perfect summer novel. The story of the Ramsay family’s summer vacation in Scotland never fails to teach me something new about humanity each time that I reread it.
My favorite summer read was a sad one, My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. The characters were believable, the style was engaging and I quickly found myself lost in the story of two sisters, one who has cancer and the other one who is a potential organ donor. The potential organ donor fights her own family for the right to make her own medical decisions, and the legal battle both tears the family up and brings them closer together. My favorite character was the father, a firefighter/astronomer who shares the sky with his daughter via a telescope mounted on the roof of the firehouse.
My favorite summer read has been “This I Believe.”
The book is a sort of remake of the NPR special in the ’50s that has recently aired again in NPR here in Southern California. It is a collection of essays by various people, some famous, some not, that explain what they believe and why.
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. I identified with the heroine when I was growing up, how she ended up in a foreign situation and learned and triumphed, but was never really a hero to herself. I wanted to be like that. It’s still a favorite because of the clean writing and vivid details.
Anything by Jane Austen.
I don’t need to explain, do I?
My favorite book this summer has been “Alive in Necropolis” by Dan Dorst – an intriguing fictional exploration of relationships between the living and the dead.
I really got into “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good” by Sarah Lacy this summer. It gives a good analysis of the web 2.0 craze in silicon valley right now filled with many examples with the big name founders.
Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Acheron. (I looked forward to that book for years and it was every bit as good as I’d hoped.)
Looking forward to: Christine Feehan’s next book in her Dark series, Dark Curse.
Stretched out on a chaise, reading a fun book, drinking raspberry iced tea, listening to beautiful Bach played on acoustic guitar by Christopher Parkening (piped through Airtunes to my wireless speakers… ahhh, that’s perfection on a summer day.
I’ll have to go with what I recently read: Ian McEwan’s “On Chesil Beach.” It’s practically a novella it’s so short, but it packs so much depth and oomph by the ending. It’s really magnificent.
“The Tao is Silent” by Raymond Smullyan.
One of the greatest logicians I know exploring Taoism and life. Great, great read!
Awesome contest. I could have so much fun with this prize as currently most of my extra money is going towards school stuff for my kiddos.
I’m all about relaxing and reading. Ahh, Sounds like something I should be doing right about now. LOL
One of my favorite reads this Summer was Judy Duarte’s Mulberry Park. It was a sweet, fast paced, inspirational story that is guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face. :)
Rebekah
littleminx at cox dot net
One of my favorite books is Shop Girl, by Steve Martin. A real guilty pleasure.
Hmmm, any Paulo Coelho book really. This summer it was The Pilgrimage. He’s a very fluid and spiritual writer and I am one of those who likes to learn something out of every book I read. The Pilgrimage had some nice rituals in it for gratitude and other things.
I’ve really been into “The Fencing Master” by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I picked it up at a used bookstore on a whim because I liked “The Club Dumas”. It has a bit of the flavor of a murder mystery, and the main character is something like Don Quixote – born at the wrong time. The descriptions of the sword fights are brilliant, as well.
So far my favorite book this summer has been Lauren Bacall’s memoir, _Now_. This woman has had an amazing life to share with her readers and has a friendly style of writing that brings the reader into her world of what isn’t always glamor, but is always fascinating.
Am I limited to only one? If I have to pick just one, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is my choice for today. It is long enough to be satisfying, and good enough that you still don’t want it to end.
Green Darkness by Anya Seton, and Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk were also unforgettable summer reads.
Cool contest!!
Books that i have discovered recently that are becoming summer reads are The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop.
A friend introduced these to me and every time I read them I find something new. Great set of fantasy books.
Bill Bryson’s The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Bryson is an great writer and really captures the simple funny things in life. A must read for those of us who grew up anytime between the 50′s to 70′s.
Being a high schooler, I have to read a lot of books. My best summer book has got to be, Eragon. Its a really exceptional book, about a Magical world with Dragons and Dragon Riders ‡]
And, for some reason, I saw the whole world and characters in my mind played out by the characters of “Final Fantasy” the game hehe
The book gets reallly deep and is a really great read =0
As embarrassing as this is to admit, my beach read was “The Nanny Diaries” this summer. It made me laugh and at the same time feel better about my life in grad school – at least I will never have to nanny! (knock on wood)
My favorite summer read is *Aztec,* by Gary Jennings. It’s a nice thick book, good for many sittings (or couch-loungings). It’s got sexy bits, scary bits, thoughtful bits… I like how it presents a completely alien culture in a very human way, and how its ‘translator’ (the character one views the book through) is shown though his own words and actions not to be so superior after all. Which is just more good writing. :-)
1984.
A little depressing, but always worth a good read with some iced tea.
Awe, summer reading. I haven’t been able to do too much of that this year! But I have to recomend a series- The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. And if we can’t recomend a series, then the third book- ‘The Horse and His Boy’ is probably the best. ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treador’ is pretty goo, too!
The best summer reading book ever is Jurassic Park… Action, Dinos, and math! A geek paradise!
My favorite summer reading this year is “Sense & Sensibility” by Jane Austen. I love the movies of her books, and decided to read them. Awesome book!
My favorite summertime book is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Told from the perspective of an autistic teen, it’s a unique murder mystery.
I loved reading Heart of Darkness because the author is so incredibly good with words and it challenges me to think.
My favorite summer read was last summer when I read On the Road. I’m going to be a senior in college and that searching itch to explore and see something new really resonated with me. I know that the book is pretty different from the original manuscript but either way the end result is a big beautiful read.
Siddhartha, by Hermen Hesse. A lot of nice plots and visualizations in there. A must read!
The Harry Potter series! Most of them were published in the summer, so I natually read them in summer. I’m sure most people know how good these books are.
Summer…time…and the…reading is…easy.
Can’t you just hear William Shatner singing that line in character as Capt. Kirk? If you’re like me, you will enjoy his autobiography “Up Till Now”. It’s not a tell-all, but Bill doesn’t pull punches either.
My favorite summer read is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It is a gripping, intruiging story that you just cannot put down!
Tom Sawyer. It makes me want to build a raft and go down river.
Mine is a children’s book: Spiderweb for Two by Elizabeth Enright. It’s funny and relaxing, and it inspired me to make up similar clues for some of my brother’s birthdays when we were younger.
Dale Carnegie – How to Win Friends and Influence People. Though a great book any time of year, it never fails to have a refresher course of reading this book during a low-stress period. Living life as described in the book is quite rewarding and it’s easier to start the day with a smile when you look outside and see sunshine rather than snow.
My favorite summer book is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Mysteries are always fun to read, especially alongside the intricate psychological portrayals of the characters.
My favorite (if atypical) summer book was “Nicholas and Alexandra” by Robert Massie. I read it in the summer of 1981, before I started my senior year of high school. I distinctly remember watching the wedding of Charles and Diana on TV that summer while I was reading the book — the comparison and contrast between the royalty on the page and the royalty on the tube was one of the things that crystallized the experience for me. Plus, it’s just a great read.
My ultimate summer read is Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. It’s all about scent and beets with a bit of Greek Mythology thrown in. Just what I need for a summer escape.
Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller.
I spent the summer living in a small village in France, making weekend trips to all of the big cities; this book kept me very excited about France.
i like to read something specific to the place that i’m visiting (summer is the time for travel, right?) for example, i’m in dublin right now so i’m reading james joyce’s “dubliners.”
Oooh, so many to choose from. Punchbag by Robert Llewellyn has made it on holiday with me more than once, because it’s one of the few books I’ve ever read with characters who seem real to me – the kind of people I grew up around, any one of them could realistically be a friend-of-a-friend.
My favorite book this summer was John C. Wright’s Orphans of Chaos. Wright weaves together a story combining tbe best parts of the British academy tradition (Narnia, Harry Potter) with Greek mythology and contemporary science (4th-dimensionalism, etc.). It was fantastic, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
Wait wait, what’s my favorite summer reading book, or my favorite book that I’m reading/have read this summer?
I’m in the middle of a fantastic book called JPOD by one Mr. Douglas Coupland (a fantastic writer of other books, too!). It has thus far been a rollicking tale that taken me across the stretches of Vancouver, through the Factor-laden countryside (not pretty) of China, and dives deep into the inner-workings of video-game programmers, human-smugglers, pot-growers, and ballroom dancers.
It’s the sort of book one doesn’t want to put down but can also pick back up at any time. An easy read and yet a very very well educated one! GO GO GO!
I kick off every summer with a re-read of Travels by Michael Crichton. Reading this book reminds me that there are two types of “travels” in this life: spiritual and physical, and that the very best summers are filled with both! Other life lessons from this book: 1. stay open to new experiences. 2. approach life with a sense of discovery 3. question everything…Life’s just better that way. :-)
My favorite summer book is “Dandelion Wine”, from Ray Bradbury. Far from his sci-fi books, it is a delightful story of a summer, seeing through a 14 years old boy.
Full of lovely plots, for me it was like discovering a small treasure.
Maniac Magee. When I read the story the first time it blew me away at the thought that a kid could touch so many lives. Had to read it for a coming of age class in college and it was still awesome.
I haven’t had a chance to read as much as I’d like this summer. But I managed to read “The Girl Who Stopped Swimming” by Joshilyn Jackson and I couldn’t put it down.
“Our band could be your life” – this book, by Michael Azerrad, is a favorite of mine. I’ve read it three times so far (once very recently), and I’ve only owned it for maybe four years. It details the rise (and, occasionally, the fall) of several great indie bands from the 1980′s – the bands that helped create the independent music scene as we know it. The music was inventive, as were the business practices. It is a constant source of creative inspiration.
Ths summer I was finally able to read “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut. I see why it’s such a classic! It was artful and exciting storytelling. A book that kept me turning the pages rather then tossing it aside :)
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My favorite summer book is John Fowle’s ‘Daniel Martin’. You are sucked into its world irresistibly, and start living the lives of its characters. It is rare to find such a book that creates the environment so beautifully; and describes the desires and dilemmas and shortcomings of its characters in such a poignant way, that it plucks at your heart strings – literally!
All of you, must read it once at least!
My favorite new book of the Summer has been The Last Patriot by Brad Thor. The book is being called the Da Vinci Code of Islam. What do Muhammad, Thomas Jefferson, The Barbary Coast Wars, Miguel Cervantes and Don Quixote have in common? Check out the book!
My favorite summer read is “Replay” bu Ken Grimwood. It is great escapist fiction, but thought provoking at the same time. It explores the notion of “If I knew back then what I know now, how would my life be different?”
Anything by Jane Austen. Why? Because I am a woman! Is there any better reason?
For young kids in particular, I thought The Alchemist was a great inspirational book we should all read once. It’s about a boy’s journey in finding his dreams. I think.
Also, for older folks, I like Brothers Karamazov. Just make sure to buy a good edition; it’s tough for me to digest, so I’m listening to the UC Berkeley Philosophy podcast (by Hubert Dreyfus) as well.
My favorite book has to be The Host by Stephenie Meyer. It had everything I love in a book. Action, adventure, sci-fi, thriller, romance, and a little comedy to back it up. You name it, it had it. The book was easy to follow, fun to read, and a great joy to add in your selves. I’m eagerly waiting for the sequel if there is one.
My favorite summer read is anything with David Sedaris. I read a couple of his books last summer, and I am planning on reading his last one, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, the next couple of weeks. The last summer read this season.
I like his books because he is an exellent writer. He is my favorite comedian, and his stories are always engaging. My life must be the complete oposite to his, but I still, somehow, relate to what he writes.
Fav summer book:
The Book of the New Sun; By Gene Wolfe
Reason:
Gene is a master of fantasy/sci-fi — instead of the elaborate description found in a lot of novels, he leaves much to the readers imagination. The work is lengthy and satisfying, and is definitely worth multiple reads to appreciate. One of the most creative works I have ever come across.
I’m finally getting around to reading “Moving On: Creating Your House of Belonging” by Sarah Ban Breathnach – and it goes right along with my summer decluttering project !! :)
Oh haven’t read much but Daniel X. It was ok, after seeing his parents murdered, he had to find his own way in the world.
My favorite summer book is First to Die by James Patterson.
What’s not to love about reading crime thriller on a day that exactly counterbalances the mood of the story? That way, I can enjoy my favorite genre without scaring myself into having nightmares ;)
My favorite summer reading book is an old one, that I read several summers ago. But I can’t forget it, nor would I want to: “Bel Canto” by Ann Patchett. Hurry up and read it now, before they ruin it with a movie. ;-)
My favorite summer reading book is Dies The Fire by SM Stirling. It’s a great motivator to get outside and enjoy the summer.
That book, for me, has to be “Eat Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. She took me on all her journeys, physical, spiritual and emotional and left me with such an overwhelming sense of contentment, well-being and positive feelings about myself, it was like a mini-spa retreat in itself.
my fave book is the collected poems of Langston Hughes….I love poetry…and his poems are vivid and full of life…much like the summer
My favourite summer book is “The catcher in the rye” by J.D. Salinger. The story of Holden happened in the winter, but I like the feeling of cold snow on my skin, especially when outside the sun is burning. And it’s one of the greatest books ever written, it’s easy to read but very impressing.
My favorite summer read was The Gastronomical Me by M. F. K. Fisher. It’s full of travel, adventures, and food — a wonderful summer combination.
My favorite book this summer has been Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. It’s a wonderful account of an American man on a mission to build schools in Northern Pakistan.
This summer I’ve been reading through The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (and continuing on to the Second Chronicles) during my lunch breaks. I have read it before and am enjoying this second time through. It is so different than most fantasy series.
My favorite book of the summer was “Lives of the Saints” by Nino Ricci. You can read my review here: http://bontempsreview.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/lives-of-the-saints-by-nino-ricci/.
My favorite summer book is Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. It’s a little bit heavy on theme and emotional content and it’s something that I didn’t really intend to finish reading, but had to just to reach the characters’ resolution. The author has a way with words that doesn’t only make you imagine the story but feel and empathize with it as well.
This summer’s best read was Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory trade paperbacks. Sure, they’re comic books (hey, it’s summer), and Morrison can be a little loopy for my taste, but having all of the issues collected and put in the best reading order made for a great read and background for his current Final Crisis work at DC Comics.
My favorite book this summer was Generica by Will Ferguson…hilarious tale about an editor who picks an awful self-help book to be published because he needs to fill his quota, and it goes on to be a cultural phenomenon.
Funny stuff and a great escape.
Great contest!
Probably a tie between last summer’s “Cryptonomicron” by Neil Stephenson and this summer’s “Mobs, Messiahs and Markets” by Bill Bonner.
“Crypto” is a fascinating tale with several threads, and though a novel about cryptology isn’t usually something you would think of as “gripping,” it is! Great characters, hacker mentality and an exciting historical story makes a great summer read.
This year, being an (the?) election year, Bonner’s incredibly sense-laden “Mobs” is a palm-whack to head every few pages. Sure, it’s non-fiction, but when you look at civilization and history from the altitude Bonner takes you in the book, real life and history looks like a hard-to-believe story.
Thanks for the contest! Love the site!