9 books for dreamy, lazy reading days

From eco-adventures to comics, our pick of summer reads that will appeal to all ages

- Avantika Bhuyan

While growing up, summer was synonymous with story time. Every June, it would become too hot to play outside, and holidays would stretch on endlessly.

Friends would be away visiting their grandparents. Books ended up becoming my best pals. Even after racing through a pile of mysteries and classics, my appetite for stories would not be satiated. So, in the evening, I would go from one member of the family to another demanding stories. And finally at night, when the house quietened, I would curl up with this collection of acquired tales. Stories of adventure, horror and valour would replay in my mind. I would take a character from here, a setting from there, temper it with a scene from a book that I had read, and knit together my own little tale.

Today, even with all the digital content available to us, there is something comforting about curling up with a book or just hearing stories from someone close to us. If we were only to stop and listen, we would hear summer beckoning us to slow down and match its languid pace. And books are a perfect way to pause, reflect and reset. So, whether you are back to school or enjoying the last few weeks of the vacation, make some time for stories—both old and new.

Survival Show by Juno Dawson (young adults): The book taps into pressures of modern-day reality TV shows, which seem alluring to adolescents, who don’t really understand the superficiality and brutal competition underlying it all. Dawson has spun all of this into a thriller, centred around a young girl, Taryn Beck, whose brother needs vital medication. As the family is not financially well-off, the talented singer secretly enters Starmaker, one of the most popular music reality shows in the world. Things take a dark turn as Taryn realises that the contestants’ very existence is eliminated.