Summer Reading

Summer.  Reading.  Two of my favorite words.  My birthday is June 23 and for me Summer always began on my birthday.  It was like the start of something; FUN!   Long lazy days of swimming and bike riding and a baseball game we called "three flies up"  where the batter would toss up the ball for a pop fly and whoever caught three would then become the batter.  The beauty of the game is you could play it with as few as two people, although three or four made for a better game.  As a child I ALWAYS participated in the Library's Summer Reading program. I was a competitive little kid; one summer I read 64 books, I think. My mom would ask me to tell her about each book before she wrote it down on the sheet they gave you to keep track so you could get your "prize"  I believe the "Prize" was a certificate that said you completed the Summer Reading Program.  I don't remember getting any cool stuff.  Maybe there was a coupon for a free ice cream?  I don't remember.  I stopped when I was a teen because I really don't remember the teens being involved in any kind of organized Summer Reading Program,  "YA Lit" as it is sometimes called, was in it's infancy when I was a teen.  Sure, I read and LOVED "The Outsiders" ( better than the movie) . I read "The Cat Ate  My Gym-suit" and the novels of Paul Zindel, "My Darling, My Hamburger" and "The Pigman".  Most of the books dealt with a teen angst that was at once familiar and foreign to me.    Summer in tenth grad and then again in eleventh I spent rereading the "Lord of the Ring" trilogy ( a fine set of films but again,the books are better), but there was no official group to join.  If there were one, they never recruited me.  NOW the Library goes full-bore to keep teens engaged in the Library and lifelong reading.  The past few years they have begun to include everyone in the Summer Reading program.  I signed up this year, but  as I did so online, I did not get the bag they give you and the program is apparently SO successful they are out of them!  I think I can get over the disappointment.

I will talk more about the two books I have read for it so far Julia Glass' " A House Among the Trees" and Jill Shalvis "Lost and Found Sisters" which is SUCH a "Beach Read" the cover features a beach umbrella and a beach bag which as far as I can tell - and I'm halfway through the book- has NOTHING to do with the story.  I have slowed down considerably since my 64 book achievement all those Summers ago.  But  I have a question for all of you reading this right now.  I am listening to "The Handmaid's tale". It is totally giving me the creeps, and a LOT to think about, but does LISTENING to a book count as reading it?  I'm not so sure. If I am not actually doing the "work" of reading, does it count?