Although I live two miles from Santa Monica Beach, I don’t go there to read: It’s too hard to concentrate when sand is getting into your shorts. But since today is the first day of summer, I thought I would give you some idea of what I tend to read during the hot months of the year.

For the most part, my summer reading tends to be on the light side. On the other hand, that’s also when I tend to tackle William Faulkner and other difficult 20th century writers.

Below are six categories with samples of my summer reading during the last three years (1923-1925).

India

I just recvently finished Heinrich Zimmer’s Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. Some other titles include Somadeva’s Tales from the Kathāsaritsāgara and Anita Desai’s Diamond Dust and Other Stories. I’ve always thought Desai’s fiction was underrated.

Latin America

These include Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season (Mexico) and Cesar Aira’s Fulgentius (Argentina). See also under Mystery,

Mystery

I enjoyed the Brazilian writer Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza’s Pursuit and Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indriðason’s The Darkness Knows. Indriðason is one of my favorite mystery writers, and I’ve read everything of his that’s been translated into English.

Noir

Summer is a great time to read books by writers like Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Raymond Chandler, and Cornell Woolrich. Recently, I read Woolrich’s The Bride Wore Black and Waltz Into Darkness and John Fante’s Dreams from Bunker Hill.

Sci-Fi

Recent reads were William Gibson’s The Peripheral and the Russian Sergei Lukyanenko’s Twilight Watch.

Travel Classics

This is one of my favorite summer categories, including such titles as Charles M. Doughty’s Travels in Arabia Deserta; Allen Ginsberg’s South American Journals January-July 1960; and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Writing Across the Landscape: Travel Journals 1960-2010.