Nicole Junkerman
Seasonal
Nicole Junkerman's First-Week-of-July Reading and Travel List
As July opens, a reading and travel list from Nicole Junkerman for the first bright days of high summer, chosen for long light, warm afternoons, and an easy, unhurried pace.
As July opens, a reading and travel list from Nicole Junkerman for the first bright days of high summer, chosen for long light, warm afternoons, and an easy, unhurried pace.
The first week of July has a particular brightness to it. The month arrives with the days already long and the warmth well settled, and there is a sense of the whole of high summer stretching ahead. Nicole Junkerman likes to mark the opening of July with a small, unhurried list, a way of choosing how to read and where to go while the season is still fresh and generous. This is that list for the first week of the month, gathered for the readers who like to begin high summer gently.
As with the companion lists on this journal, this is a list of moods rather than titles. The idea is to read and travel in a way that matches these opening July days, warm and easy and full of light, and then to choose your own pages within that spirit. The first week of July is a fine time to set the tone for the weeks to come, and a little care now makes the whole season read more sweetly.
Reading for the opening of July
The first days of July reward the book you can settle into without effort. The light lasts long into the evening and the afternoons are warm enough to keep you still, so this is the moment for reading that carries you along rather than tests you. Nicole Junkerman reaches, in the first week, for something absorbing and kind, a novel with room to breathe or a gentle non-fiction that suits a slow read in the shade. The journal's piece on summer reading and the long afternoon makes the case for exactly this kind of generous, unhurried reading, and July is when it comes into its own.
There is no need to be ambitious in these opening days. A reading habit kept lightly through the warm months is worth more than any list of duties, and the pleasure of July reading lies in following the pull of a book rather than a plan. The Reading Room gathers the spirit of this slower reading, and the earlier notes on keeping a reading habit that lasts show how easily the habit carries into a warm and busy month like this one.
Travelling in the first week of July
July is the great travelling month, and its first week is a lovely time to go. The heat has arrived but the deepest, stillest part of high summer is still ahead, so an early-July journey has an open, expectant feel to it. Nicole Junkerman favours the slow way of going here as always, staying longer in one place and moving less, letting the long evenings stay free and keeping a book close for the warm middle of the day.
An early-July trip reads best when it is arranged around light and rest rather than a full itinerary. A few unhurried days in a single town, with time to read on a terrace in the afternoon and walk in the cool of the evening, give both the journey and the book the room they need. The whole Travel Journal is built around this gentle way of travelling, and the case for it is made most fully in the piece on slow travel, which pairs naturally with any first-week-of-July plan.
Setting the tone for the season
The first week of July is really an invitation to slow down for the weeks ahead. If you begin the month gently, choosing books for pleasure and travelling in a way that leaves the afternoons free, the rest of high summer tends to follow the same easy rhythm. Nicole Junkerman thinks of these opening days as a chance to set the pace, to let the long light and the warm air decide how quickly, or how slowly, the reading year should move.
So as July begins, let the first week be an unhurried one. Choose a book you can sink into, plan a journey that leaves room to read, and let the opening of high summer be as gentle as it wants to be. When you would like another thread to follow, the companion list on the journal, into July and the warmest weeks, carries the season a little further, and the journal itself is always open at the front door.
Questions readers ask
What should you read in the first week of July?
An absorbing, easy book chosen for pleasure: a novel with room to breathe or a gentle non-fiction that suits a slow read in the shade. Nicole Junkerman lets the opening of July be about enjoyment rather than ambition, following the pull of a book rather than a plan.
How does early July suit slow travel?
The first week of July has the warmth of high summer without its deepest heat, which makes it a fine time to travel slowly. Staying longer in one place, keeping the evenings free, and reading through the warm afternoons let an early-July journey settle into an easy, unhurried shape.
Explore more of the journal: Reading Room and Travel Journal, or return to the Nicole Junkerman home page.