{"id":86444,"date":"2026-05-31T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=86444"},"modified":"2026-05-30T18:42:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T00:42:37","slug":"season-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/season-pass\/","title":{"rendered":"Season pass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Season<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is this stray weekend we find ourselves with between Memorial Day and June? A byproduct of this longest possible unofficial summer, a strange gift of a weekend between spring and the month in which summer officially begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A perfect weekend, I think, for determining our reading plans for this summer. I do this each year, decide which books will be inscribed indelibly into my memories: the novel I\u2019ll read while lying on the grass in the sun; the short one I\u2019ll finish in an afternoon under a blanket in the air-conditioning; the audiobook that\u2019ll accompany me on a long drive, window down, spritzing the pollen off the windshield every few miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road to absolutely not one book completed by Labor Day is paved with vague notions of wanting to read more, without much thought as to what will be read, or when. To actually manifest a season of reading, I\u2019ve found, I need a plan. It doesn\u2019t have to be complicated, or perfect, but it has to exist. May I present to you a lovely plan for getting a more-than-respectable amount of reading done this summer? It is the Summer Reading Bucket List, brought to you by my friends at The New York Times Book Review. If we all follow this list, we\u2019ll expand our palates (\u201cRead a book in a genre you don\u2019t normally read\u201d), travel without traveling (\u201cRead a book in translation\u201d), make use of a resource whose wonder we might have forgotten (\u201cCheck out and read a book from your local library\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once upon a time, I galloped through a book a week, thanks to a group challenge that prescribed 52 reading categories for the year. I got arrogant after completing two years of the challenge and thought I could go it alone, unyoked from the categories, which had started to feel like homework assignments. The next year I struggled to finish books, starting several at once and then casting them aside, tasting first chapters as if I were grazing at an all-you-can-eat buffet. As anyone who has filled their plate with a bit of Caesar salad, a dumpling, some cacio e pepe, two coins of roasted zucchini, maybe a little calamari knows, those buffets are a trap. You get a lot of interesting bites but you never feel satisfied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A checklist for summer reading may seem a little uptight for those who imagine they\u2019ll feast lavishly on the season\u2019s bounty. But for those like me whose eyes are bigger than our attention spans, we benefit from a menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could always create your own list if you prefer: 10 books you\u2019ve been meaning to read. One book from each of the past 10 decades. Or you could enlist friends, family members, colleagues to work through the list with you \u2014 a group text keeps everyone accountable and is good for recommendations. (Be sure to check out the Book Review staff\u2019s pointers: I didn\u2019t know that Stockard Channing is the audiobook narrator for Beverly Cleary\u2019s Ramona books! If I were taking a road trip with kids, we\u2019d be listening to every one.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever books you select, do so knowing that you\u2019re architecting the literary memories that you\u2019ll associate with this summer for years to come. I remember the summer of 2015 not so much for what I did, but for how it felt to stretch out by the pool, the sun burning my legs, unwilling to move to the shade so engrossed was I in Gabrielle Hamilton\u2019s memoir, \u201cBlood, Bones and Butter.\u201d \u201cThe Long Secret,\u201d the Long Island\u2013set sequel to \u201cHarriet the Spy,\u201d was, for most of my adolescence, as constant a summer stalwart as lemonade. I can still feel the humid subway platform where I stood in 2012, almost immune to the August heat, devouring Lauren Groff\u2019s novel \u201cArcadia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So many of summer\u2019s signatures (the sun, the sandals, the mosquitoes) stay the same year to year, but the books we read give the summer its character (and characters!), its unique complexion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m almost done with \u201cHow to Rule the World,\u201d by Theo Baker, reading it on Kindle and listening to the audiobook \u2014 my favorite double-barreled method for total immersion \u2014 so I could count it as an audiobook, or check off \u201cRead a book published in the last year.\u201d Next up: a book in a genre I don\u2019t normally read. Is this the summer I get into romantasy? I\u2019ll let you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n