As the summer winds down, I realized that one of my favorite things in the Youth Services department is when a family comes in before a vacation, and each kid leaves with a teetering stack of books, having been instructed by their parents to get enough for a week or 10 days. It is clear that they are headed to some idyllic spot with no Internet, and the family will have to entertain themselves without screens or devices. As adults, we rarely have this kind of time to devote to reading, and it really is a shame that we get distracted by work, household chores and Netflix. What would you choose to read if you had an uninterrupted week to do so?

Recently there has been a Facebook trend going around asking you to post your seven favorite books without comment. As an aspiring librarian I thought it would be a better idea to encourage others to post their favorite books and why. So here are seven books that have helped me on my path to becoming a librarian.

Summer is the time for reading on the beach (or anywhere else!). Check out one of these summer-themed graphic novels for kids and teens. These titles will take you from summer camp to visiting relatives to long weekends at the cabin; all summer staples. Make those long summer car rides a little more bearable by picking up a fun graphic novel from the library.

I don’t know why this continues to be an argument among book folk. There seem to be two sides to this argument. Those of us who adore audiobooks and listen to them whenever we can, most definitely consider them to be reading, and the other side who does not.