“Reading in summer can be reading to pass the time, reading to rest, to disconnect. But it can also be reading to live, reading to not know, reading for nothing, because reading is also that, something that is done simply because does, without any project or purpose”. He wrote it in his “Summer Philosophy” Joan-Carles Mèlich, last National Essay Award.
Multiple benefits are listed for practicing reading on these dates: for children, improve their comprehension capacity and their school level, strengthen their character. For the elderly, strengthen memory, reduce stress and anxiety. For everyone, summer reading should be basically a treat.
In our special supplement this year we offer several lines of suggestions. Begoña Gómez Urzaiz brings us up to date with those texts on new forms of sentimentality, and how to live them in narrative fantasy and in real life. Lilian Neuman unfolds the panorama of detective authors that could not be missing. Isabel Gómez Melenchón analyzes the crop of heterodox history books, which offer original visions of other times. Antonio Iturbe proposes five book trips, and J.A. Masoliver Ródenas and Julià Guillamon reveal their recent critical preferences.
Mèlich ended his summer philosophy with a plea: “that they leave us alone when it comes to reading.” May you read in peace and enjoy the summer and reading.
