You're getting fewer e-mails. You're ditching out of work at any excuse. You're a little bored! And everyone is away so frequently. Where is everyone, anyway? Your attention span is kind of shot. Perhaps it's time to devote yourself to a leisurely, thoughtful summertime read. Come on—you used to read things that weren't photo captions! Remember what you used to be like? And so some new, and related, pieces by Mary Beard, Dale Peck, Ben Kunkel, and Alan Ehrenhalt.