I was at a bookstore this weekend and walked past a table marked with a sign that read "Summer Reading."  It was stacked high with books featuring lovely, inviting covers.  I was drawn to it, sure I'd find a gem I hadn't discovered, a book out in paperback by a favorite author that I hadn't yet read.  Instead, I realized that I'd read almost every book on the table.  I don't think that this means that I'm particularly well read, but more that the table was like a demographic study of my reading habits.  Like a lemming, I'm drawn to those books.

But in the summertime, those aren't the books that interest me most.  I don't want the beautiful, larger-format book.  I don't want the weight of a hardcover.  I want a mass market-sized book that's placed next to The Enquirer at the grocery store.  I want something that has a dramatic looking cover and is packed with action.  The subject doesn't matter, but if it has murders, crimes, or a medical mystery, then it ends up in my cart.  In the summertime, I find myself seasonally interested in James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Stephen King, Janet Evanovich, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton.  Sometimes, I'll start one that I've found at my parent's house only to discover that I've already read it before, but usually not until I reach the end (that's mostly because I suffer from short term memory reading disability).

What do you read in the summertime?  Does your summer reading list vary from the books you read the rest of the year?  What's in your queue for this summer?