Books

Not Ready For Summer? These Authors Will Definitely Get You In The Mood

by Julia Seales
Hannah Burton for Bustle

If you’re an avid reader, you probably have a book quote for every occasion. Personally, I memorize tons of book quotes, and I love reciting them when the moment is just right. I don’t even mean to memorize them; I just read beautiful words and can’t help storing them up to use at a later time. When authors wax poetic, I am a very happy audience. And of course, nothing gets me in the mood for warm weather faster than a book quote about summer.

Something about nature seems to inspire the most lovely descriptions, and no matter what season it is, you can probably find a great book quote that will make you appreciate the great outdoors (or, in winter, the great indoors with a crackling fire and a great book). Summer is certainly no exception to this rule — the long, languid days of June, July, and August make for ideal reading time.

When the weather is warm, vacations roll around, and you’re searching for books to take to the beach, it’s time to pull out quotes about summer. Here are some of the best book quotes about summer, sunshine, and sand that will get you ready for the warm days ahead:

1

"It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside."

—Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib

2

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer."

–F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

3

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of the summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning."

—Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

4

"One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by."

—Jeanette Walls, The Glass Castle

5

"All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world."

—L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

6

"It was a vast, luminous dream in which his whole life seemed to stretch out before him like a landscape on a summer evening after rain."

—George Orwell, 1984

7

"I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer – its dust and lowering skies."

—Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

8

"Upon the very Eve of Midsummer, when the sky was blue as sapphire and white stars opened in the East, but the West was still golden and the air was cool and fragrant, the riders came down the North-way to the gates of Minas Tirith."

—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

9

"The island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever."

— E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

10

"Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in me. Summer was supposed to be about freedom and youth and no school and possibilities and adventure and exploration. Summer was a book of hope. That's why I loved and hated summers. Because they made me want to believe."

11

"Even so, there were times I saw freshness and beauty. I could smell the air, and I really loved rock 'n' roll. Tears were warm, and girls were beautiful, like dreams. I liked movie theaters, the darkness and intimacy, and I liked the deep, sad summer nights."

— Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

12

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— L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle

13

“And then, one fairy night, May became June.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night

14

“The only way I could describe what kissing him felt like was, like the last day of school, knowing that months of freedom and sunshine lay before you, the feeling that you could do anything you wanted and time stretched out in endless possibilities.”

— Robin Benway, Emmy & Oliver

15

“In the morning light, I remembered how much I loved the sound of wind through the trees. I laid back and closed my eyes, and I was comforted by the sound of a million tiny leaves dancing on a summer morning.”

— Patrick Carman, The Tenth City

16

“To me, summer has always been about potential. This was especially true when I was in high school. Those three or so months between one school year and the next always meant change. People got taller or wider or smaller. They broke up or came together, lost friends or gained them, had life experiences that you could tell had transformed them even if you didn't know what they were. In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible. As a teenager, I was always hoping to change, to become someone other than who I was. Each summer, I felt I had the chance to do that. All I had to do was wait and see what happened.”

— Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride

17

“The whiff of ocean on the southern breeze and the smell of burning asphalt brought back memories of summers past. It had seemed as though those sweet dreams of summer would last forever: the warmth of a girl’s skin, an old rock ‘n’ roll song, freshly washed button-down shirt, the odor of cigarette smoke in a pool changing room, a fleeting premonition. Then one summer (when had it been?) the dreams had vanished, never to return.”

— Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball