Former House Speaker (and author) Newt Gingrich is touring Iowa's 99 counties this summer, exploring an '08 presidential bid.

Your summer reading list?

I'm reading From Munich to Pearl Harbor. I picked up former CIA agent Robert Baer's novel, Blow the House Down. I ordered Mark Bowden's [Guests of the Ayatollah]. Every 10 days I walk through a bookstore, call my assistant, and say, "Would you order [these] for me, please?"

What's on your fun agenda?

I'm joining [my son-in-law and grandson] to look at pigs and cows at the Iowa State Fair. When you walk around stock pens with a 5-year-old, your nervous energy lowers dramatically. The NRA is having a Mediterranean cruise and asked if I'd [talk]. I was surprised and turned to [my wife], who said, "Which part of visiting Rome, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, and Malta do you not think is really cool?" So I said yes.

Advice for the GOP?

Go where people are having fun--like a corn boil. You learn more if you go relax with people and don't feel you have to campaign.

For Democratic candidates...

I'm a partisan, so my advice for them is to take the entire August recess and visit Europe.