The best (and worst) places to read a book in summer
Wintertime reading is easy: You want to be on the couch or in your favorite reading chair, perhaps snuggled up with a pet, a blanket, a cup of coffee, or all of the above. But summer is nearly here, and when the weather gets nice, it's hard to resist the siren call of the great outdoors. Alternatively, when it gets too hot to read in the house, you may start hunting for some freely available air conditioning!
WORST: Library
Hey, don't get me wrong: I love libraries, and I think they provide a valuable and useful service to our communities. Libraries are a great place to GET books in summer, but they are a terrible place to READ books.
Why?
Three words: School. Is. Out.
Until fall hits and all the kids go back to school, the library will become a sort of de facto daycare. Unless you can find a library with a section of boring adult books tucked away in a distant, quiet corner, you can give up trying to read at the library.
Note: This advice does not apply to law libraries, university libraries and other boring adult public book collections. They are great places to read in the summer, for the same reason: school is out, and they are empty.
WORST/BEST: Local parks
I have mixed feelings about trying to read at the park.
On the one hand, I used to live near a park that was mostly empty, and I had a favorite tree to sit under and read in the shade. That was pretty great.
On the other hand, reading at the park is a great way to get hit by a Frisbee while you're deep in concentration over your book. That sucks.
This one depends on your park. Scout out available shade, as well as areas far away from kids' playgrounds (unless you're bringing your kid, in which case you should probably stay nearby). Avoid areas that tend to get heavy use from bros throwing discs, balls, or hackey sacks.
Image courtesy Flickr/J. Stephen Conn
BEST: Mall food court
I know, right? The mall is terrible. But on a hot summer day, I love to go to the nearest mall, buy a diet soda and read a book at the food court. After all, the mall is free AND air conditioned AND no one cares how long you stay there if you're just reading quietly.
If the food court is too crazy with noisy people, walk around and look for a bench tucked away in a quiet corner. Most malls have at least one bench no one ever uses, in a weird corner with stores no one shops at. That's gold!
Image courtesy Flickr/fortinbras
BEST: Coffee shop
I love getting an iced coffee and sitting outside a coffee shop to read on a nice summer day. But this option requires some research and footwork on your part.
If you plan to read indoors, it needs to be a shop that is not too full, and not too empty, with enough comfortable seats to make it likely you can snag one. If you want to read outside, then it needs to be either in the shade or providing umbrellas to keep the sun off you.
The location matters, too. There's nothing worse than sitting outside a coffee shop choking on diesel exhaust from passing traffic on a stifling summer day.
BEST: Office building lobbies
Have you ever noticed that office buildings often have strange, rarely-used waiting areas in their first floor lobbies? As long as you look like a reasonably upstanding citizen (i.e. not a transient), you can probably sit and read here for hours without being bothered.
Main image courtesy Flickr/JPott