School is trying to snatch up kids earlier and earlier each year, but the August heat is reminding us it is still summer. And, summer is for escape and adventure.

Well, when you’re a book lover, adventure and escape is a year-round thing. Here are three random picks of short stories and essays you can take with you everywhere for quick adventures…and misadvetures.

Stories of Hawaii by Jack London

University of Hawaii professor A. Grove Day edited and provided the intro for this short collection of stories set in one of London’s favorite places, the Hawaiian Islands. People often associate London with San Francisco or cold adventures against rugged elements, but he loved Hawaii. This book contains 13 tales from London, most of which are just a few pages long, that capture his love with Hawaii before it became our 50th State. He talks about the sport of surfing, the lives of Chinese people living on the island, the beautiful women, the hard-working “cowboys,” the climate, landscape and the essence of the islands. Written in the early 1900s when Hawaii was going through some changes, London’s writing is very much not what “modern audiences” may enjoy. It is however, genuine and observant in ways only London could do in his brief life.

The Good Samaritan Strikes Again by Patrick F. McManus

More on the lighter side, are the folksy essays from an American humorist who loved the outdoors. Granted the outdoors didn’t always treat him and his friends well, but no matter. Both bad and good experiences make for great, and often hilarious stories. This particular collection from 1992 had me at the title story, in which no attempted good deed goes unpunished and horribly wrong. I will say that if you haven’t ever set on the hiking trail, ventured to a fishing hole, or attempted pitching a tent, these may not ring as familiar. Yet, those who have set out beyond the city for some escape in to the wilderness will not only relate, but find a reason to recall and share some of their own outdoorsy tales. McManus had a very hometown and friendly feeling in his writings, and his characters themselves are pure Americana moods.

Batfishing in the Rainforest by Randy Wayne White

Full title, Batfishing in the Rainforest: Strange Tales of Travel and Fishing, is White’s first full compilation of his travel essays from 1991. Many people might know White for his mystery and crime novels set in Florida, but I first got into him when when my brother would send me photo copies of his essays in Outside Magazine when he was away in college… and later when I was away in college. I am a desert rat who has only river rafted and lake-hopped a few times, but his ten rule in “How to Be a Competent Southern Waterpersson” is a favorite of mine. I’ve seen some of the people he was writing about, and anyone who has even walked along boating docks has seen how there is so much that can wrong. White is one of my favorites because it gave me some ways to relate to my brother who is very different from me in age and personality…but also because he has just a cool, solidness to both his writing style and the person he comes across as through it.

Don’t let summer slip away without at least a few more escapes, even if they are just for the joy of reading.