If you’re looking for something novel to do this summer, pick up a book. Despite what you may think, a few hours spent enjoying a gripping book can actually be entertaining! What follows is my pick of top texts, both fiction and non-fiction, based on how you prefer to be entertained.

If you liked The Terminator — Though it’s also dystopian fiction, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, which follows fiery archer Katniss Everdeen as she tears down an oppressive government, is brutally faced-paced with a plot that moves as swiftly as Iron Man’s. The three fast-paced volumes, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay, aren’t so much great literature as greatly entertaining, blending action, romance, and sci-fi together in adrenaline-fueled escapism that’s cheaper than a day at the movies.

If you like Tim Burton — Truth becomes nearly as strange as Sweeney Todd or Jack Skellington in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt’s chronicle of his years in Savannah. The cast of characters includes an eccentric voodoo priestess and a drag queen, Lady Chablis, whom Berendt encounters as he relates the hysterically macabre mystery and true story of the murder trial of an antiques dealer.

If you want to be scared out of your wits — Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None capitalizes on a now-popular trope:  a group of people are lured to a secluded island only to be picked off, one by one. Try as you might, you can’t help but fear both solitude and other people while turning the pages of one of the Queen of Crime’s best thrillers.

If you’re as quirky as the Coen Brothers — The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, by Michael Chabon, screams bizarre film noir with its alternate historical setting. In the novel, Jews were given a temporary homeland in Sitka, Alaska, instead of Israel, following World War II; now the lease is about to expire. Alcoholic detective Meyer Landsman is equal parts disillusionment and sass as he tries to solve the mystery of a local chess prodigy’s murder while watching his world fall to pieces.

If it’s too hot for a hike — Enjoy the boons of nature while avoiding the sticky heat of August days with Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. Bryson handles his midlife crisis urge to hike the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail with guffaw-inducing sarcasm and wit (often aimed at his old friend and trail companion, the bumbling Stephen Katz) and peppers his narrative with useful information on the history of the trail, its flora and fauna, and the dangers, both animal and human, to be faced as one crosses the mountains.

If the National Gallery of Art is closed — Delve into the world of Dutch artist Vermeer’s enigmatic portrait, Girl With a Pearl Earring, by picking up Tracy Chevalier’s novel of the same name. Marvelous for history as well as art buffs, paints an enthralling picture of the mid-seventeenth century Netherlands and offers a bittersweet backstory to the glowing depiction of the young Dutch girl. The protagonist, 16-year-old Griet captures Vermeer’s eye while working as a servant in his household.

If you need a little Bard of Avon — Take a break from whatever theatre you’re studying to read Jennifer Lee Carrell’s incessantly shocking historical thriller, Interred with Their Bones. After her mentor is found murdered at the Globe — in the same manner as Hamlet’s father — scholar and director Kate Stanley sets out on a round-the-world chase for one of Shakespeare’s lost plays, Cardenio, while she avoids becoming the next victim and grapples with the trustworthiness of various allies.

If you want a little girl time —Jacqueline Susann exposes the hidden side of the lives of Anne, Neely, and Jennifer, three ambitious women who live the high life in post-World War II Old Hollywood in the pop culture classic Valley of the Dolls. The super-scandalous novel is an enjoyable read while getting a manicure or sunning on the beach.

If you miss Harry Potter — You’re out of luck. What could possibly trump the lightning-scarred boy wizard? You’ll just have to jump into J.K. Rowling’s superb septology again.