Summer Reading Tips and Recommendations
Posted on July 20 2020
If you’re like many students, you’ve got a lot of reading to do for your summer classes — or you have summer reading that has been required by your school.
Also, though: You want to have some social time during the summer. So how do you get through hundreds of pages of reading?
Here are a few tips that may help.
Summer Reading Tip 1: A page at a time
Look, it’s no big secret: The way to eat a giant pizza is one slice at a time. The way to run a marathon is one stride at a time. And the way to write the great American novel is one word at a time.
So what’s the way to get through all of that summer reading? One page at a time.
That’s why we strongly suggest doing the math. Figure out how many pages you need to read, then divide by the number of days in your vacation.
So, if your vacation is eight weeks long and you have to read three books with 238, 284 and 313 pages, the equation is:
(238+284+313)/(8*7)=15 pages per day.
Better yet, give yourself some wiggle room. Plan to read every day, but work into your equation the fact that you might miss a day or two each week. Thus, if your vacation is 10 weeks long and you have to read four books with 221, 212 and 198 and 345 pages, the equation is:
(221+212+198+345)/(10*5)=20 pages per day.
When you can break the reading up into smaller daily goals, your success of getting all the pages read will come much easier. Plus, you may actually like what you’re reading and go past your daily goal!
Summer Reading Tip 2: Fill your downtime
A great summer is full of fun activities. But we’ve never had a summer that didn’t have at least a little bit of downtime.
Whether it’s relaxing at the beach, being a passenger in a car, or just hanging out at home, there are bound to be moments in which you can put a few pages behind you.
Make a habit of always filling downtime with reading first before moving onto social media, videos, or games, and you’ll be sure to make it through your summer reading list in no time.
Summer Reading Tip 3: Don’t read alone
At some point today, somewhere in the world, someone else will be reading the words you are reading right now.
And no, we wouldn’t necessarily recommend forming a reading discussion group to talk about this blog, but we do want to drive home the point that no matter what you’re reading, there’s someone else out there who is having the same experience.
One of the things that make reading meaningful and memorable is to have someone to talk to about it. So do that! Use a fellow student. Ask a parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent or guardian if they would be interested in reading with you. Reach out using social media to find someone who is reading the same book you are and share a dialogue about the book.
Get more out of your summer reading
So then, what’s the best way to get through lots of reading during the summer? A bit at a time, whenever you have downtime, and with someone else.
Try these tips and let us know how it goes!
Further Reading
Summer Tips: How to Overcome Summer Learning Loss
