Summer: Beach Balls, Best Friends, and Books

As I was sitting on my couch this afternoon, it suddenly hit me: I only have 2 weeks left of my sophomore year of college. After I got done panicking (I have a lot of schoolwork that still needs to be completed), I realized that this means that summer is right around the corner. Ahhh, summer. Warm weather, country music, lake days, family, friends, and movie marathons are calling my name (along with 40+ hours of work a week, but I’m choosing to ignore that as of right now). When I think back on this past semester, I realize that this class was my bright light. When I was feeling stressed or bogged down, I was able to drop everything and read for hours on end because “it’s homework.” Now that the class is ending, it’s time to start making some plans for summer. What will I read? What will I do to challenge and better myself? How do I keep finding great books to continue reading?

My YA TBR List

My TBR list is so full I doubt I’ll have any problem finding books this summer. The further we went on in the semester, the more the books started to pile up and the list began to expand. I have so many great classmates that recommended books, I just couldn’t say no! As I searched through YALSA and read blogs, I continued to find more books that I just couldn’t turn away from. Here are just a few that I’m excited to read:

• I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
• Lost in Love (City Love, #2) by Susane Colassanti
• The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry
• Infinite in Between by Carolyn Mackler
• Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
• When Reason Breaks by Cindy Rodriquez
• … and many, many more!

When, Where, and How

This summer, I plan on packing up and going back home. I have definitely struggled with this decision throughout the semester; Curtis is a lovely town, but there is not a lot to do as far as activities. Also, many of my friends will not be going home this summer. However, this will free up my schedule to read a lot of books- tons, I hope. (Once again, I’m going to ignore the fact that I’m working full time this summer. Ignorance is bliss, right?) My free time this summer will be spent with the friends that are close to my home town, family, and reading. I tend to read right before I go to bed and sometimes right when I wake up in the morning. In the summer, I have been known to escape outside at dusk with my book or even take a book to the lake and read by the water. I like to read while I relax, so anywhere that I can achieve that feeling is perfect for me. This is exactly why I am positive that reading will continue to remain a habit for me. I went home last summer, and I basically followed the same routine each day: wake up, go to work, eat lunch, work, come home, exercise, shower, eat, watch TV, read, sleep, repeat. I have no doubt that this is exactly how my summer will look again, and I’m okay with that frankly. Reading will allow me to relax after long days at work.

Finding the Right Books & Challenging Myself

Honestly, looking at my TBR list just excites me. I think that I have a fantastic list of books to read as well as add to. In order to continue to find terrific books, I plan on keeping up to date with new releases and lists on YALSA as well as frequently visiting my local library and school library (perks of having a dad who is also the superintendent). I am passionate about continuing to find new and great books. By keeping up online and (hopefully!) still viewing tweets from my classmates about great books, I believe that I will be able to continue along the same path that I’m on right now.

Challenging myself and my reading life is incredibly important to me. I feel like I’ve really opened up my reading life to new and diverse genres this semester, and it’s important to me that I continue doing this. I’m going to try to do the #bookaday challenge this summer. I’m excited to begin this. I think that it will really challenge me and keep me reading, which is my main goal for the summer.

(Image: commons.wikimedia.org)

The fact that this is my final blog post for this class is astonishing. Where did the semester go? It amazes me that summer is literally right around the corner and we are talking about our summer reading plans. YA Lit class, thank you for all of your feedback, recommendations, and encouragement throughout the entire semester. I appreciate it all so much and have truly loved learning along with you. This has been a class that I enjoyed and  can’t wait to continue with in the summer. I hope that between all of the hours put in at work you all have a summer filled with beach balls, best friends, and books.

-RG