Summer reading for grown-ups (with a promo code!)

This post is sponsored by Scribd.

I love reading on vacation, and often plow through three books on a week-long trip. Since both my kids can swim, when we went to Mexico in April, what my children will probably remember as a jumping-in-the-pool vacation, I will remember as a devouring-books-by-the-pool vacation. I need only look up every now and then.

Living here in the future is pretty awesome because our electronic book gadgets weigh much less than a stack of books — and because I can zap books to my device in an instant. As soon as a friend mentions a title, it can be mine. This is instant gratification of the most literate sort.

Scribd gave me an account for the summer — normally $8.99/month for as many books as you want, all available on your laptop, Apple or Android phone, or Kindle FIre. It is ridiculously easy to get your $8.99 worth if you’ll read a book or more each month from the Scribd library.

Similar to Netflix, the body of titles is not the entire universe of books, so I use the “Related” button to find my next book, reducing the risk of typing in titles out of thin air and not finding them. There are, however, 400,000 choices.

What are you reading? If you’ve got recommendations, I’d love to add them to my Kindle. Here’s what’s on my virtual nightstand (meaning I’ve added it to my Scribd library, as a first step toward choosing my next book.)

• I’ve gobbled up a handful of Jodi Picoult books, and may add My Sister’s Keeper to my library.
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir is acclaimed by writerly people, so I feel obligated to consider it.
• A bunch of romantic comedy-ish chick lit stuff that I’ll read quickly and forget about instantly. (Guilty pleasures, for the win!) I confess to reading whatever Jennifer Wiener writes.
• Jellicoe Road, a Young Adult book which my sister texted me to recommend, because that’s how baby sisters roll.
• The Good Daughters or To Die For by Joyce Maynard because I read her book Labor Day and liked it.
• And finally, since we’re going on a road trip to the national parks in Utah and the Grand Canyon, I can grab a Lonely Planet guide to use as needed. (I never want to buy hard copies of travel guide books again!)

The Scribd app remembers what page I’m on. So if I let Julian read on my phone for a while, but then want to kick him off, he can just go get another device to keep reading. (We have many!)

Wanna try it? Use this link and the code rookiemoms0614 to get a 3-month trial of Scribd for free and see if you like it.

Thanks to Scribd for sponsoring this post and offering free summer reading in the form of a 3-month trial to our readers.