Summer Reading Program

MJ and I just got free T-shirts from our local library commemorating this year's Summer Reading Program, and it reminded me how important libraries and reading programs still are, even in 2026 when Moore's law says computing speeds are doubling every year, Mark Zuckerberg is buying land in Kauai for doomsday scenarios, and all chatbots have everything ever written uploaded into their systems, apparently. Summer reading programs take me back to growing up in suburban Chicago going to the local Indian Prairie Library and checking out books, realizing I had access to all the books I could possibly ever read, and my whole life ahead of me to read them. Well, fast forward 30+ years and I no longer have as much time as before to read those books, but I still get joy out of browsing the library and seeing all the different things humans have written, what the newest releases are (like Blockbuster, another cultural center from a bygone era), and sometimes, just viewing the covers of the books is enough to give me inspiration. I remember my 5th grade reading program had a "read 10 books for a pizza" prize as well as "read 20 books and win a ticket to the Kane County Cougars game," or some other promotion to a minor league game that doesn't seem that special now but to a 7-year-old kid was magical. As a jilted and cynical adult, I no longer feel the magic; I lost the feeling somewhere along the way of paying a small fortune for law school as well as realizing almost everything is commercialized, but books remain one of the few domains that don't exist solely to make money (sure you can pay to buy books, but you don't have to). I hope Baby Girl Yan wasn't born too late to experience the type of magic I felt when I read books from cover to cover, back when I had to do that. There's also something poetic about reading in the summer, somewhat counterintuitive because this should be the time of going to the beach, sitting in an AC movie theater ,baseball games, summer vacations, long days that seem to never end, but reading has always been a part of my summers. One of the bingo squares on our Summer reading program we needed to complete was to "read outside," so it's not just me, others have done it. The thing is if you spend a whole afternoon outside reading somewhere, you'll remember it forever, and you'll remember the book too, as well as a more vivid recollection of what that book is about, or so says a "geographical" theory of memory, where your mind is more alert when you're also mapping where you are. I'll always remember being a junior in college but reading the latest Percy Jackson book in the quad at the University of Illinois, or reading The Overstory by Richard Powers under trees at our local art museum, or traveling cross-country with my father moving from Chicago to L.A before law school, reading "50 jobs in 50 states as my dad drove." Come to think of it, I really wanted to do that 50 jobs in 50 states adventure, but I did my own 15 jobs in 15 states just based on the nature of my work, I have really worked in various states. Anyway, keep the mystique of summer reading alive! Baby Girl Yan see you in 3 summers when you're ready to read!