July 2021 List of the Month: Best Beach Reads

Apologies all, for posting this a little late, and for not posting about our June list this past month! Our July list of the month is devoted to Best Beach Reads. This will no doubt be a fairly broad, and highly subjective list. Hopefully also a fun list!

I'm only catching up now with the discussion had this past March and April about this new feature, and want to let you all know that the selection of upcoming list topics will hopefully be a little more interactive than these past two.

Lists of the Month

February: Must Read Books by Black Authors
March: Favorite Science Fiction by Women Authors
April: Recommended Nature Writing
May: Must-Read Maine Books
June: Favorite Caribbean Books
July: Best Beach Reads

I didn't know there were books that you're only supposed to read on a beach ;)

Is it to do with size? I read everything (the rare times I am) on a beach: from the slimmest Terry Pratchett volume to the doorstop Malazan, hehe

I don't know about beach reads specifically - on the rare occasions I visit a beach it's for other more active purposes and I don't sit and read.

I would have thought this list should be more inclusive - Best Summer Holiday Reads. I also would expect it to change every year depending on which bonk-buster is available in your airport.

I think it's impossible to have numerous and diverse lists that I personally think are all useful or interesting, so I accept that some lists will inevitably seem pointless or useless to me. The Beach list is one of those. I read whatever book I am currently reading when on the beach. Perhaps I pick something light, but I have no concept of what a typical beach book would be, other than possible just that: light.

Given that the current No.1 on the list is L’étranger, I suspect that there’s scope for subverting the intention of the list a little.

Who are all these people who get to read on the beach? It rarely blows less than 4 Beaufort on the beach here, it would be very hard to keep the pages still…

>5 thorold: It rarely blows less than 4 Beaufort on the beach here, it would be very hard to keep the pages still…

A waterproof e-reader is just the ticket for that problem!

>5 thorold: Yeah, I've been thinking that "beach" is a very relative concept, depending on one's local geographic conditions.

As someone who grew up very far from any large bodies of water (where beaches -- if available at all -- likely as not consisted of sand dumped on the shore of an artificial reservoir) and who is now living in a country where the sea coast is best described as windy, damp, and muddy, I can't say I'm terribly acquainted with the prototypical experience that is supposed to be evoked by "beach reading".

I think the direction the list has been taking so far is interesting though -- many users so far seem to have collectively decided to interpret it as "coastal settings" plus in most cases some theme of "resort or vacation destination" rather than "light summer vacation reading".

>5 thorold: I must admit I was confused by Camus as the beach read, but even more so by To the Lighthouse. You went by themes obviously, but it it doesn't exactly qualify as 'light read', which is what I associate with beach read. You know, you're on the beach, the sunning is blaring, there's a lot of people around, children playing, water splashing, all sorts of things not conducive to reading something requiring more than a little focus

When I was growing up, the summer vacation on the beach was the only time when Mom did not need to work and take care of the house at the same time. So she used to pack the biggest and thickest book she had in her library that she had not read yet - and then read it on the beach.

So in my mind, beach read was never the same as "light read" - it was usually the opposite. When I started bringing books with me as well, I did the same as her - so my beach reads tended to be on the heavy side (Volume 1 of Thomas Hardy's selected works for example one year). :)

Not exactly what the idea of the list is I suspect. Plus I had not been on the beach in a decade - if I go now, I will go with whatever book I am reading just now. ;)

When I was in undergrad a Sociology professor told us he always read Tolstoy or Dostoievsky on the beach to impress women. So now I always think of their books as beach reads.

Interesting article that popped up when I Googled "Definition of Beach Reads".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/what-exactly-is-a-beach-read-...

Not saying I agree or disagree, just saying I found it interesting...just like some of the comments from above.

Heh. My reads in various tropical places (Fiji and the Maldives, many years apart) have included War and Peace, The Glass Bead Game and The Wealth of Nations. I read Pratchett at home.

>11 perennialreader: Behind the paywall, sadly

>13 SandraArdnas:

? I was able to read it. Maybe you exceeded your "free" allotment of WP articles for the month (in which case an incognito window would do the trick).

The word "best" doesn't really have meaning unless it's an extension of "good", which for me is somewhat at odds with the usual marketing of "beach read" before the pandemic: the latest grocery-store romances and adventures meant to be skimmed in bulk while the intoxicated reader fries in the sun.

(ETA: Besides, if new books on this summer's bestseller list is what the LT team wanted to see, then creating a communal list like this would be a lousy way to get it. Anyone could look up the NYT.)

I would always think of environmental damage and selfish vacationers when I went to any beach (not my favorite type of destination), so what "beach read" means to me now is writing that inspires and simultaneously relieves a little guilt at not doing anything through the act of reading about what should(n't) happen. That means coastal- or water-themed entertainment.

>14 paradoxosalpha: Sorry, there's obviously a procedure for EU residents, which I missed initially.

>7 spiphany: "I think the direction the list has been taking so far is interesting though -- many users so far seem to have collectively decided to interpret it as "coastal settings" plus in most cases some theme of "resort or vacation destination" rather than "light summer vacation reading."

Agreed. One of the things that interests me, about a concept like "beach reads," is how differently people interpret it. Some think of it as "light" reading (however they define that), some go for thematic reading (beaches, shorelines, seafaring), some have other ideas, based upon personal experiences.

>9 AnnieMod: "Not exactly what the idea of the list is I suspect. Plus I had not been on the beach in a decade - if I go now, I will go with whatever book I am reading just now. ;)"

Oh, I don't know. I enjoy all the stories of what people read on the beach, and why. I can't deny that there have been times I have taken what I think of as undemanding fiction to the beach. Then again, there was the time I took a collection of Yeats' poetry to the shore of Lake Michigan one summer, and spent the day by myself, using bits of charred wood from our bonfire the night before to write his poems on the stones there.

It was all washed away, soon enough, but I had memorized a few beautiful poems, and passed a lovely day! :)

>11 perennialreader: I'm not sure I agree with everything there, but the article certainly raises some interesting points, particularly as it concerns the role of marketing, in promoting the idea of "beach reads."

>15 aspirit: "Besides, if new books on this summer's bestseller list is what the LT team wanted to see, then creating a communal list like this would be a lousy way to get it. Anyone could look up the NYT."

I don't know, honestly, that I envisioned it in quite so restrictive way, although it's certainly a term with connotations. I have enjoyed people's responses, thus far.

I inferred from a peruse of this list that "best beach read" for most contributors implied books that take place on a seashore, or had a beach-related theme, or a title word that related somehow to a beach. This was intriguing. To me, a "beach read" suggests a book that is engaging and easy to read, generally light in tone, and funny, hopeful, feel-good or easily rewarding in some other way. It isn't necessarily related to a beach theme at all. (e.g. one of my top picks takes place in Manhattan and there's nothing about a beach; I added it because it's a fun read.) Makes me wonder if most readers connect "beach read" more literally, with beaches.

>21 RuMuse: I don't know if it's that they necessarily define a "beach read" literally, so much as they either found the original idea dull, or weren't sure of the definition, and decided to go with what interested them. As I mentioned in the other thread, I found the result interesting.

I have created a dedicated group for discussion of the List of the Month project, here:
https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/23491/List-of-the-Month

All are welcome to come and join the group!