Some look for a change of pace. While summer is good for swimming and tennis and other sorts of thrashing around, some say it is even better for sitting quietly with a good book. Despite all the other options, a lot of reading gets done in the summer.
Many people are on vacation, and have more time to read, for one thing.
Our own tastes being unrelated to the time of year, we have never been entirely convinced of the summer shift, suspecting instead that people who read fluff surreptititiously in the winter months feel licensed to bring their trashy novels out in the open in the summer. We called Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, who said that his interests don't change with the season, either. But there are definite seasonal differences in the Library's business, Roberts says. July and August are our two biggest months of the year. The main reason is that the library sponsors reading programs for children, and activities such as puppet shows to draw children into the library.