Three small (but mighty) changes I want to make to my reading life

Summer reading season is almost here!

As Memorial Day draws closer, so does the very best season of reading: summer reading. I still have fond memories of bringing home giant stacks of library books over summer vacation and in one of the few photos of me from my family’s summer trip to Hawaii, I’m ensconced in a beach chair clutching a giant hardcover fantasy novel. My days are a lot busier now but I still treasure the opportunity for leisurely reading sessions over long weekends, afternoons in the park with a book and a back-up title, and the release of many of my most anticipated romance titles of the year. Naturally, I’ve also been thinking a bit about what I want my reading life to look like this summer and with the change of the seasons, it’s the perfect time for some changes I’ve been mulling over for a while.

1. Start keeping a notebook of favorite quotes

   I’ve never been a big annotator but I do like to occasionally flag a sentence or passage and I’d like to do something with all those page flags. What better use for my abundance of notebooks than as a commonplace book? I’d especially like to start doing this with quotes that I love and particularly beautiful lines from romance novels. Romance’s line-level prose gets a lot of flak and true, sometimes it’s simply there to get the job done. But sometimes it’s fabulous and I’d like to celebrate that.

2. Stop saving the best for last

   I’ve definitely told this anecdote here before but as a child, I used to read my library books in order of projected enjoyment, going from least to most. I still find themselves putting off the books I’ve been looking forward to the most, waiting for either the perfect moment or a time I really need them, convinced that they’ll be better if I precede them with titles I’m less sure of. But I want to coax myself into the habit of letting go a little and enjoying things when they come to me. I’m starting this month by setting a firm mini TBR of contemporary romance: Happy Ending by Chloe Liese, No Matter What by Cara Bastone, Enemies to Lovers by Alisha Rai, and The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn.

3. Read more chonkers

   This year, I’ve read two books that are over 500 pages. Yet I have a big soft spot for a long book, whether it’s a sweeping family story or fantasy with three pages of maps at the front. I love being completely swept up in a story and I love a book that takes its time and lets its plot and characters breathe. So I have my eye on two big, floppy paperbacks this summer: The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif, a cross-cultural love story set in turn-of-the-century Egypt, and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, a stand-alone epic fantasy novel that I’ve had recommended to me multiple times. I want dragons, I want drama, and I want a book so big that I have to keep it flat on my lap while reading.

Let me know about your summer reading goals in the comments!

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Currently reading: The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson, my third title from the Women’s Prize shortlist.

Recommendations, miscellany, and little bits of joy:

• I finally saw The Devil Wears Prada 2! It’s stylish, fun, sharp, and full of devastating quips and gorgeous clothes.

• We went to Krupa Grocery in Brooklyn for my boyfriend’s birthday and it was the perfect neighborhood restaurant dinner. Make sure to get the risotto balls and chocolate peanut butter tart if you find yourself in Windsor Terrace.

• Being oh so close to finishing this draft of my current writing project…I’m in the zone where it’s fully invaded my thoughts and I can see the HEA in its full cinematic glory.