How was everyone’s Fourth?  Magical, I presume.  Now the summer is underway for real.  Before the 4th of July, it’s not really summer yet, no matter what the calendar says.  I probably believe this because of all those times growing up when it snowed on June 28 (Ah, Upstate New York).  Anyway, here are some links to get your summer rolling.

• Lists are popping up everywhere these days.  Via The Elegant Variation comes this list of the 50 best summer reads ever from The Guardian.  It’s an interesting list with a lot of literary genre pieces.  I really can’t knock this list, as it has something for nearly everyone (including some Kinsgley Amis!).  This list, on the other hand, offers plenty to argue about.  Picking the 100 best books of all time is an impossible task, so I won’t bother griping about specific rankings (Catcher in the Rye #15?  Really?).  I must confess, if this is truly a measure of the 100 greatest books of all time, I need to get on the ball.  Of the top 20, I’ve read 5.  Yikes.
• Sarah Palin will publish two different editions of her memoir, one with extra spiritual references. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that. For someone who, I assume, has presidential ambitions, shouldn’t she be trying to unite people and find some common ground.  Jeez, if we can’t all agree on one memoir, how can we agree on the more important things?
• Like most Americans, I spent a few hours on Saturday watching The Twilight Zone marathon.  My bookworm friends would do well to watch Time Enough at Last, easily the most overt case of television attempting to denigrate the reader for its own aggrandizement.

Go to the Vroman’s Blog

Related Posts:

1. Classic Stories

   South Pasadena’s historic old mansions exude a kind of early 20th Century literary quality. Can you...

2. Cool Fresh-Juice Cocktails for Warm L.A. Nights

   With so many great cocktail destinations in Los Angeles these days, we thought a short list of...

3. Free Book Swap at Vroman’s

   Goodreads, the book-lover’s social networking site started by a UCLA student, is partnering with Vroman’s this Saturday...

4. Autumnal Arrivals at the Farmers’ Markets

   Last week marked the return of Laura Ramirez (J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch in Riverside County) to the...

5. The Caviar Life on the Cheap

   One might assume, given the reputation of Paris’s famed Petrossian — and the general swankness implied with...

6. Living Space

   Sometimes I stumble across something that is quintessentially California. Sure, people abandon furniture on streets all...