This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
It could be the wistful sights, sounds and smells of summer all around us – the familiar song of the ice-cream van playing Greensleeves through warm, child-cluttered streets and the evocative scent of charred burgers on the barbecue scream British summertime – but we’ve been feeling a little nostalgic for summers past recently.
Do you remember that glorious feeling of six long school holiday weeks stretching out in front of you? Six whole weeks with nothing to do! Sure there would trips to the beach and picnics during that time, but the thing you most looked forward to – the absolute best part of the summer holidays – was the reading.
You could read on your bed, stretched out on the grass in the garden, or up a tree in the park until you were called home for dinner. You could read horror by R.L. Stine, fantasy by C.S. Lewis, deliciously disgusting tales by Roald Dahl and beloved boarding school classics by Enid Blyton. If you were lucky (and managed a trip to the library unsupervised), you might have even got away with a Judy Blume or two – even though your parents insisted you were still a bit too young.
Devouring books every summer became a treasured part of our cultural lives, and we’d re-read our favourites and re-read them again until the pages were almost falling apart. 
But then we stopped.
Time and priorities changed, and our beloved literary friends were packed away for the last time.
Until now.
Yes, we're reclaiming a little bit of the summer holidays for our adult selves. This year, all of us here at Team Novelicious have pledged to revisit and re-read at least one favourite book from childhood or teenagerdom. We’re going to reconnect with those intelligent heroines, beastly antagonists and fantastically magical worlds that taught us so much when we were growing up, and we can’t wait.
Kay has purchased a selection of Point Horror; Kirsty NP has gone for Goosebumps; Verity has dug out her old Swallows & Amazons paperbacks and Zarina will be thumbing Enid Blyton’s St. Clare’s series. Cesca, meanwhile, has opted for Jilly Cooper’s Riders, Kirsty G will be getting reacquainted with the Sweet Valley High kids, Susan has chosen Forever by Judy Blume and Kerry has downloaded digital versions of all the Trebizon books by Anne Digby.
The excitement is palpable, guys, and we’d love you to join us in our #NostalgicSummerReRead campaign!
Simply choose your book and let us know what it is by using the #NostalgicSummerReRead hashtag on Twitter or by commenting below. As you’re reading, be sure to journal, blog and tweet about your re-reading experience. What do you remember most about those words, those characters, and the feelings you had when you first were introduced to those books? How does it feel to read them now with your fresh perspective and adult eyes? Has it taught you anything about yourself?
If you’d like to send a review of your chosen book, to be published on Novelicious in a roundup post later in the summer, you can email up to 200 words to kerry@writingtipsoasis.com.
We can’t wait to see what books you choose. Now, go forth and re-read, book nerds!