Whatcha Thinking Thursday (2)

It's week two of Whatcha Thinking Thursday, hosted by me! Here's how it works. Each Thursday I'll simply blog about something book related that's weighing on my mind. Feel free to comment away if you agree or disagree (just keep it clean, okay?), or if you want to post to your site either on the same topic or about whatever it is you're thinking about go right ahead. I just ask that you link back to here. Also, make sure you add your blog to the list so we can find you!

This week I'm thinking about Summer Reads.

I was working on my review of Sydney Salter's Swoon at Your Own Risk and I was about to say "It's a great little summer read" when I got to thinking, what the heck does that even mean? What exactly is a summer read and is it the same for everyone? For me a summer read is something lighter, that I can pick up on my way to the beach or pool and zip through in a day. It's not that it lacks message or depth neccessarily, it's just that it doesn't make me work to get through it and understand it. In my opinion a summer read is all about fun. I read other stuff in the summer and I'm sure I pick up light and happy books during the dark days of winter, but to be classified as a summer read in my book you've got to be a quick, easy read, that is uplifting and darn good time.

I started looking at other summer reads lists, Oprah has one, so does the Huffington post and I found that their summer reads lists are exactly the opposite of what I look for in a summer read. Huffington post has The Passage on theirs, while a great book, it is also 769 pages long- not exactly light reading in the sun.

So which us it? Is summer a time for heavy duty reading, or for light and fun reading? Is it different for different people? Maybe it's because some people use summer as downtime, with time reserved to get into these great (long, heavy) books, where as someone like me tries to cram as much activity as possible into the few sunny months that we have here in Upstate NY? I spend much more time reading during the months and months of cold and snow that we have and I save those "make you think" books for then.

If it's different for everyone, does that take away from the accuracy of using the term "Summer Read"? How about you- where do you stand- what's your definition of a "summer read"?