Reading in Public No. 74: My recipe for a satisfying summer reading season
All about the vibes I bring to my (human generated) summer reading guide
I was already planning on sharing what goes into the creation of my annual Paperback Summer Reading Guide, but recent AI shenanigans make today’s post all the more relevant.
An insert included in a special edition of the Chicago Sun Times and Philadelphia Inquirer included a “Summer reading list for 2025” promising new and old books perfect for poolside reading. Of the fifteen titles included, ten don’t exist. That’s right. A full two-thirds of the featured books are either real books misattributed to a different author or completely hallucinated, nonexistent books attributed to some pretty big name writers.
Having worked in this space for some time, I’m disappointed but not surprised. I have increasingly come across more blogs, newsletters, guides, and even podcast segments where it’s blatantly obvious that AI drafted the book descriptions. While I’ve never seen an entirely fabricated list full of fake books, it was only a matter of time.
Other writers have taken the time to explore why this matters. From journalism issues, to the book publicity angle, to the concern over ongoing brain rot, these pieces get at why something so ridiculous is cause for serious concern.
As someone who spends hundreds of hours each year putting together a summer reading guide, I am also personally offended by this mess. Creating a reading guide is so much work. For my Paperback Summer Reading Guide, I find and read dozens of books to select the ones I think will make for the very best summer reads. I agonize over what to include and painstaking seek to create a balance of publication dates, page counts, settings, and reading moods.
It’s infuriating to see someone offload that task to AI and get paid to have it run in a major publication. And, yes, it might be good news for me that, at this point, AI isn’t very good at this kind of project. But you know people are going to keep trying—we’re lazy and cheap and the tools are right there.
So, today, I’m here to tell you a bit about my Paperback Summer Reading Guide in the hopes that you’ll decide to let me—a real human reader and writer—help you plan your seasonal reading. But also, it is a great day to (if you’re able) choose a writer on Substack who you value, who’s bring all of their humanity to their work, and support them with a paid subscription.
Recipe for a (Paperback) Summer Reading Guide
Summer reading season is the best reading season. I don’t make the rules! Yes, all the best literary fiction comes out in the fall. And, yes, the winter is ideal for reading an epic tome fireside or in a hot bath. But after decades of built up muscle memory, summer still feels like the peak reading time. In spite of being busy with sports, I remember having a lot of down in the summer. At home, I would finish a book or two in a day and, at camp, I’d hide in my bunk reading to avoid too much socializing in between activities. As an English major, summers in college were my only chance to actually read what I wanted to. Even in most of my adulthood, grad school and teaching meant I still had summers to while away and an abundance of time meant these were the months I did my best and most satisfying reading.
While in some ways I don’t see my summer reading as particularly different from how I like to read all year long, putting together my PSRG over the years has revealed certain patterns and markers that make for a satisfying summer reading season. Here’s what I try to bring to the guide:
Books you want to pick back up. Not every book in my PSRG is what I’d call a page turner (although I do have an entire section of Literary Page Turners!) because I appreciate a luxuriously slow book in the summer time. But it is crucial that the books in the guide are ones that I was excited to get back to every time I set them down. No one wants to feel stuck in a book in the middle of the best reading season!
Short and long books. There are two types of reading experiences I associate with summer in particular: finishing a book in a day and getting absorbed into a long book for days on end. While there are books of all lengths in the PSRG, including those nice mid-length books, I pay particular attention to finding short and long books to recreate those blissful reading experiences.
Balance and variety. The pleasure of getting a reading guide made up of books vetted and curated by an avid reader is that you know you are getting books that someone with a singular taste enjoyed and appreciated. All of the books in the PSRG are to my taste, but it’s also important to me to include wide variety and to balance a whole slew of factors when finalizing my selections. I want books that vary in tone, mood, setting, country of origin, length, publication date, on and on. While they’re all books I enjoyed, they’re curated with you in mind to make sure there are good books for every reader who purchases the guide.
A sense of discovery. It’s never been easier to find out about great books, but it’s also never been harder to have the experience of stumbling upon something new and wonderful. The irony that knowing about too many books limits our sense of discovery is not lost on me, and it’s something I try to combat with the PSRG. My hope is that you will open this guide and see books you’ve never heard of before alongside ones you’ve been meaning to read for ages alongside some favorites that give you a sense of my taste and curatorial process.
A feeling of freedom. What I’m always after in my summer reading is a feeling of freedom—the joy of knowing I can go down any rabbit hole, spend weeks on one long tome, get invested in a series, or try out works that are completely novel to me. In order to help infuse my PSRG with that feeling, this year I tried to let myself read as freely as possible when vetting books for the guide. That means there are some books on this year’s guide that were surprises, even to me, and I hope that opening this year’s list gives you that sense of wonder and freedom we all crave in our reading lives.
If you want to get the 2025 Paperback Summer Reading Guide delivered to your inbox this Friday, May 23rd you have a couple of options and opportunities for extra perks.
Upgrade to a paid Substack subscription. You’ll get the PSRG sent to you on Friday morning along with a Zoom link to attend the PSRG Round Table Friday at 1pm ET (this will be recorded if you can’t make it live!). You can get a monthly subscription for $5, but to celebrate this year’s guide, I’m also offering a 20% sale on annual subscriptions, which means you can get a year’s worth of recommendations and more for $40. This summer I’ll get sharing some bonus podcast episodes around all things summer reading as well as launching Margin Notes—a series where I’ll deep dive into three of the PSRG titles throughout the summer. My hope is that this serves as a trial run for the first every FictionMatters Substack readalong in the fall!
Join the Patreon Literary Society. If you want the PSRG and you’re looking for a literary community to read with, this is the option for you. Patrons will get an invitation to the Round Table plus a bonus section of Summer Reading Projects along with private Discord channels for ongoing summer reading discussion. Of course a Literary Society membership also gets you access to our monthly Book Clubs and more!
Purchase the PSRG as a standalone. If a subscription is not for you, you can purchase the guide as a standalone for $10. While you can’t preorder it at this time, you will get a link for where to purchase in this newsletter on Friday, May 23rd. This year, those who purchase the standalone guide will also get a Zoom link to attend the PSRG Round Table live, however, I’m not certain I’ll be able to follow up with a recording for standalone purchasers. This is the first time we’re trying this, so we may experience some hiccups, but we’ll do our very best.
As always, a huge thank you for your support of this newsletter! Not only do you all make this work possible, you make it fun and fresh and keep me excited about the online literary world! I can’t wait to say thank you in the form of the 2025 Paperback Summer Reading Guide!
For questions, comments, or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out by emailing fictionmattersbooks@gmail.com or responding directly to this newsletter. I love hearing from you!
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Happy reading!
Sara
This AI madness is a perfect example of why the bookish community is so important. These PBSGs are clearly made with intention, attention to detail and an understanding of human nature. Not this fake impersonal nonsense
“While they’re all books I enjoyed, they’re curated with you in mind” - this! This is what I love about it. Even compared to other, hopefully human-vetted summer reading lists like Lit Hub might have, this makes the PSRG unique. Your taste + audience in mind. I find so many publications’ lists are just devoid of a discernible POV/particular taste. (And for good reason, of course, but it makes me love the PSRG all the more!)