Nicole Junkerman
Seasonal
Early July, Slow Days: Nicole Junkerman on the Pleasures of Summer Reading
In the slow, early days of July, Nicole Junkerman writes in praise of summer reading, the gentlest and most generous kind of reading the year has to offer.
In the slow, early days of July, Nicole Junkerman writes in praise of summer reading, the gentlest and most generous kind of reading the year has to offer.
Early July has a slowness all its own. The rush of the first summer days has passed, the heat has settled into something steady and kind, and the days are long enough that there seems to be time for everything, or for nothing in particular. Nicole Junkerman thinks of these as the slow days, the ones that ask very little and give a great deal, and they are among the finest reading days of the whole year. This is a short piece in praise of them, and of the summer reading they were made for.
Summer reading is a particular pleasure, quite unlike the reading of any other season. In the cooler months a book can feel like a refuge against the weather; in early July it feels instead like a companion to the day, something to carry out into the warmth and open at leisure. The slowness of these days is exactly what makes them so good for reading, and it is worth savouring while it lasts.
The gift of a slow day
A slow day is a rare and generous thing, and early July is full of them. When there is no hurry and no fixed shape to the hours, a book can be read the way it is meant to be, unhurriedly and for its own sake, with time to pause, to reread a fine page, to let a chapter settle before moving on. Nicole Junkerman treasures this kind of reading above almost any other, and the long, warm afternoons of early July are its natural home. The journal's piece on summer reading and the long afternoon is really a hymn to exactly these hours.
The pleasure of a slow day lies in giving it away to a book without guilt. There is a small art to finding the quiet corner, the shaded bench or the cool room, where an hour can turn into a small sanctuary, and the notes on finding quiet corners to read gather that art nicely. The Reading Room holds the wider spirit of this slower, gentler reading, the kind that early July invites so easily.
What summer reading asks for
The pleasures of summer reading are simple ones, and they ask for simple books. Early July is not the season for duty or difficulty; it is the season for the book you pick up because you want to, the one that carries you along on its own current. Nicole Junkerman chooses by pull rather than plan in these weeks, letting the slow days decide the pace and following whatever a book has to offer without asking too much of it.
There is wisdom in reading purely for pleasure while the days allow it. A summer read need not be light to be joyful, but it should be freely chosen and easily entered, the sort of book that suits a warm afternoon and a wandering mind. This same by-mood way of choosing runs through the earlier into-July reading and travel list, which carries the season on into its warmest weeks.
Letting the slow days be slow
The truest pleasure of early July is simply letting the slow days be slow. There is no need to fill them or to make them productive; their gift is the space they leave, and a book is the gentlest way to spend it. Nicole Junkerman believes that to read deep into a warm, unhurried July afternoon, with nowhere to be and nothing pressing, is one of the year's quietest joys, and one that needs no justification at all.
So in these early days of July, let the slow days stay slow. Choose a book you love, find a warm and quiet corner, and give the long afternoon to the pure pleasure of summer reading. When you would like more of the same, the front door of this journal is always open, and the Nicole Junkerman home page is the gentlest place to begin again.
Questions readers ask
What makes early July good for reading?
The slow, settled days of early July leave time and space for unhurried reading, with long warm afternoons and no fixed shape to the hours. Nicole Junkerman counts them among the finest reading days of the year, made for reading purely for pleasure.
What is summer reading, at its best?
At its best, summer reading is freely chosen and easily entered: the book you pick up because you want to, read slowly and for its own sake in a warm, quiet corner. It is a companion to the day rather than a task, and early July is its natural season.
Explore more of the journal: Reading Room and Travel Journal, or return to the Nicole Junkerman home page.