The Back To School banners have been sickening us in the shops since June but now, with the return to work and study drawing ever closer, it’s time to make the most of those lazy days you’ve got left.

It seems the world has fallen in love with the written word again so, with another shower of book to big screen adaptations dominating at the Box Office (and more waiting in the wings), there’s never been a better time to sit yourself down with a good novel.

Here’s your essential Summer Reading List:

THE BOOK THAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT

Being John Green must be pretty great right now. He’s got no less than three books in the Top 10 on the New York Times Young Adult Best Sellers List (at the time of writing this piece anyway) and the big screen adaptation of The Fault In Our Stars stormed the Box Office this summer.

The novel is sitting pretty at the top of that aforementioned Best Sellers list, and tells the tale of a young girl called Hazel who’s battling cancer. While struggling with her condition and what it might mean for her future, she happens upon a young man by the name of Augustus and love blossoms.

I bought it before the film came out but still haven’t had the guts to read it or see it.

THE BOOK THAT EVERYONE WHO READ THE FAULT IN OUR STARS IS NOW READING

Did you know that TFIOS is actually John Green’s 6th novel? Well, you do now anyway.

His first was actually called Looking For Alaska and it followed a young man named Miles Halter as he left Florida for boarding school in rural Alabama. There he meets a young lady by the name of Alaska Young and his life is irrevocably changed.

The film rights to the book have been thrown around quite a bit since it was released in 2005 and hit the New York Times Best Sellers List almost 7 years later.

Green FINALLY confirmed that Alaska will get her day in the cinema recently though, so you’d better start reading before the tale hits the big screen.

THE LAST OF THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS

The movie may have been an absolute flop/total disaster but that doesn’t mean Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series went down the toilet with it.

The YA tale of a young girl who discovers she’s a demon hunter is still incredibly popular, albeit tainted for quite a few former fans (including myself) after that big screen fiasco.

The final book in the second Mortal Instruments trilogy was released this summer, much to the delight of Clare’s fans.

City of Heavenly Fire is the showdown to end all showdowns (for the characters, at least) and sees young Ms Fray fighting for the future of Shadowhunter and human life as she knows it.

I thought it was all a bit “meh”, much like the conclusion to Clare’s spinoff Infernal Devices series. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a go though.

THE A-MAZE-ING RACE

Lord of The Flies meets The Hunger Games in James Dashner’s New York Times Best Seller The Maze Runner. which is due for release on cinemas screens later this year.

Young Thomas wakes up trapped with a bunch of lads in the middle of a massive maze, and his memory of the outside world is wiped. The Maze is brimming with clues though, and he attempts to use them to piece his history back together.

The Maze Runner is the first in a series of novels Dashner has penned about Thomas and Co. If you like what you get from the first then keep your eyes peeled for sequels The Scorch Trials and The Death Curse, or prequel The Kill Order.

AN ESSENTIAL DASH OF DYSTOPIA

If you loved Divergent then you’ve probably already devoured Valerie Roth’s Insurgent and Allegiant.

If you haven’t then you might want to get on it because the continued adventures of Tris Prior, a young girl who has discovered that her world is not at all what it seems, are actually rather decent.

The third and final book in the series caused uproar for all the wrong reasons (I LOVED it) and with the second film already in production there’s no better time to make a start on Insurgent.

ANOTHER OUL TEARJERKER

Nothing says summer like an endless outpouring of teen emotion so if you loved drowning in a sea of your own tears reading TFIOS then you’ll definitely want to pick up If I Stay.

 

Gayle Forman’s 2009 novel aims right for the ‘feels’, telling the tale of an incredibly talented 17-year-old who finds herself torn between staying in this world and moving on to the great unknown after a car crash. She’s living in limbo and can’t decide what to do at all.

Of course, there’s a fella involved, and yet ANOTHER big screen adaptation starring Chloe Grace Moretz.

AND THE OLD FAVOURITE YOU’LL NEED TO RE-READ BEFORE NOVEMBER

If you loved Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games finale Mockingjay then you’ll probably be just as dubious as I am about them splitting the book into two movies but sure hey, wha’cha’gonna’do? T’is standard YA adaptation practice at this stage.

Mockingjay: Part 1 is set to hit cinema screens on November 21st so if you haven’t read it yet then you’d better get around to it. I’ve been through it three times at this stage.

The book sees Katniss and co coming to terms with the fact that the capital has Peeta, while trying to get used to life in District 13 and plan a no holes barred guerilla warfare/PR campaign against President Snow and The Capitol.

Those odds are just NEVER in her favour.