Reviewers' Views

Ever wondered what some of Victoria's top book critics, literary journalists and other bookish types like to read over the summer? You might be surprised!

Our group of hand-picked experts offer up general tips on summer reading, some recommended books, and thoughtful and humorous personal memories of this most savoured kind of reading experience.

Ray Cassin - Senior Writer, 'The Age' Part of the summer reading experience for me is a time when you can savour the things you like in life, and that includes returning to books you already know. If they're any good - and 'The Shark Net' and 'Our Sunshine' by Robert Drewe are very good - you will find they improve with age.

Michael Shirrefs - Executive Producer, 'The Book Show', ABC Radio National My summer reading list and the joy of the reading is enhanced by the fact that I don’t have to constantly think about how this should become an interview – it becomes, quite simply, reading for pleasure.

Ramona Koval - Presenter, 'The Book Show', ABC Radio National So in summer what do I read? Anything that cannot be easily translated into an interview for the radio. So, dead people mostly, classics that I failed to read ... and dictionaries in languages other than English.

Alison Pressley - Editor, 'Good Reading Magazine' One of my most vivid memories of a great summer read is of lying on a banana lounge in my back garden over the Christmas break of 1996/7. I was immersed in 'Under the Tuscan Sun' by Frances Mayes.

Tim Coronel - Editor, 'Bookseller+Publisher Magazine' Summer is a great time to sit out on the balcony of a balmy daylight-savings evening and finally finish a few of the very many books I start throughout the year, then leave in an increasingly teetering pile by the bed to 'finish reading later'!

Claire Sutherland - Books editor and film writer, 'Herald Sun' My teenage summer holidays always meant a banana lounge, sunglasses and an eventual book-shaped white patch on my torso. The white patch could have been left by anything from Stephen King's latest frightfest to a George Orwell novel...

Jason Steger - Literary Editor, 'The Age' and 'The Sunday Age' The holidays tend to be a time when in theory I can indulge myself, specifically to relish in relaxed mode or to get ahead with books that are due out in February or March...

Rebecca Starford - Deputy Editor, 'Australian Book Review' 'Gone with the Wind' has always been a book to which I return. More recently, the short stories of Elizabeth Jolley, Tim Winton and Cate Kennedy. I am looking forward to 'The Best Australian Stories 2007' from Black Inc. And I have Hazel Rowley’s biography of Christina Stead set teasingly atop my bedside table.

Ryan Paine - Editor, 'Voiceworks' magazine My favourite summer-reading memory is from my childhood. I was obsessed with camping. I spent that weekend ploughing through Judy Blume’s 'Superfudge' series in my red undies – it was really hot, you understand...hotter inside the tent than outside.