It’s finally summer, and there’s all kinds of clichéd things we could say about how you’re going to have “fun in the sun” or “get your tan on” or just the mere word “patio.” However, we also know that book people are not like non-book people in that: a) we like books (duh); and, b) all of the great outdoors and social events and sporting activities are decidedly opposite a lot of the things that we like most about the time we spend reading.
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It’s finally summer, and there’s all kinds of clichéd things we could say about how you’re going to have “fun in the sun” or “get your tan on” or just the mere word “patio.” However, we also know that book people are not like non-book people in that: a) we like books (duh); and, b) all of the great outdoors and social events and sporting activities are decidedly opposite a lot of the things that we like most about the time we spend reading.We’ve got you covered with this list of sum-block books, SPF 100: the lit you crave that’s still close enough to whatever activity is at hand, so you can peer over your pages and say to your compatriots: “I’m participating.”At the WaterparkAh, the waterpark: the splashing, the sounds, the questionable hygiene. As people fling themselves down waterslides and children tumble in the wavepool, grab a book and take it on a slow inner-tube ride down the lazy river.Our recommendation: When you get splashed for the 1,000th time, you’ll actually feel grateful that you don’t live in the waterless waste that is the ruined earth in H.E. Taylor’s Water (Thistledown Press). The heroine in this meticulously researched environmental dystopia is Billie Featherstone, a Métis “post-human” reanimated by a video game-like technology where most biological species have gone extinct.At the CottageNow, cottages are generally amenable to reading, it’s true. But because they’re also amenable to gas-powered watercraft, biting insects, and firesmoke, the more time spent dockside nestled in an adirondack, the better. When it’s too hot, you can always hop in the lake for a quick dip.Our recommendation: Set in Ontario’s cottage country, The Night Drummer by Paul Nicholas Mason (Now or Never) is the story of two boys: white, middle-class Peter and Otis, an Ojibwe boy adopted by evangelical Christians. You’ll find nostalgia lurking behind their adventures traversing the forested area of Miskoka and the Kawarthas, and struggle amid their experiences growing up in a small-town environment where difference is not always celebrated.On a Portage AdventureYou may have even left the cottage to go portaging, though we’re sure the hours you spend with a canoe eating into your shoulders or under your butt also eats into your reading time. When stopped for the night and not completely exhausted, pick up your mini-flashlight and a good read.Our recommendation: Aside from having “canoe” in the title, Gary Barwin’s collection of poetry moon baboon canoe (Mansfield Press) is the perfect mix of reverence for nature and pure absurdity (much like portage, really). Plus, you can pace yourself with as few as one or two poems a night, if you need to rest up for another day on the trail.At a Music FestivalMusic festivals allow for seeing a huge slate of great acts for a fraction of what you would pay in a stadium. However, they’re also an exercise in lines: bathroom lines, beer lines; you might even think the arms-waving crowd standing barefoot in the dirt (if you’re lucky and it doesn’t rain) as one big, disorderly line to be closest to the singer. Bring a blanket, sit back, and save your energy for that headliner you’re crazy about: the lines can wait.Our recommendation: Put on the holier-than-thou air of the vinyl nerd with Sharry Wilson’s new biography of Neil Young, Young Neil (ECW Press). Chronicling his early years (and influences) from his 1945 birth to his early 20s, Wilson’s biography features an unprecedented amount of research on the beloved singer before he moved to California to begin his musical career outright. Bonus: read the book and make a new friend by spouting some interesting trivia – maybe it’ll be something for you to talk about while you’re waiting in line.At a Destination WeddingYou’re sweating in a suit/formal dress in a Pinterest board-come-to-life somewhere tropical, waiting for “I dos” of beloved friends or family members so you can grab a reception cocktail and try not to think about how much your credit card hates you right now. Sound familiar?Our recommendation: Focus on feeling happy for your celebrating loved ones through the schadenfreude of Judith Alguire’s A Most Unpleasant Wedding (Signature Editions). This instalment of the Rudley Mystery series features the imminent wedding of longtime Pleasant Inn guests Miss Miller and Mr. Simpson, and its disruption by a murder in the nearby woods.
