NPR Listeners Choose Best Beach Books

Here we are at the end of July already. School will be starting before you know it, and then we will be oohing and ahhing over cooler temperatures and autumn leaves. So what better time to consider this list, compiled by NPR fans, of the best summer reads?

Summer reads are generally considered fluffy and light, but looking at this list makes me wonder about that! One Hundred Years of Solitude? Really?

So what book is your ideal summer read? I would have to go with a re-read of Austen or the Harry Potter series.

Blast from the Past

For those of us who may be digging in our heels at the deluge of on-demand technology, I humbly point you to this article. I was a neo-Luddite myself for awhile but happily embrace most new technologies if there is the slightest chance my life will be made a smidgen easier or more enjoyable.

This article brings back fond memories--but my memories go farther back to my Harvest Gold RCA transistor radio. I could hang it off the handlebars of my bike and pedal away with my music with me. I was cool, if only in my own mind. It was only an AM radio, but that was ok, too. It was music I could take with me. Looking back at the list in the article, what do you fondly remember enjoying or using? How would you explain missing a television show or a rotary dial telephone to a 12 year-old?