Reader Crystal passed along a recent article from NPR soliciting nominations for the best beach reads ever, which they then narrowed down to 100.
What’s a beach read? NPR defines:
“When you read one, your surroundings recede, time bends and you’re transported, mesmerized, enthralled. These are page turners to be sure, but that doesn’t mean they’re brainless. This year’s list will be fiction only; any genre, any period.”
Personally I feel like the key is the page-turning part. You’re at the beach! You’re relaxing! There are distractions! The brain should not be overly taxed, but the book should still be really fun and engaging to read.
Which is why I was a littttle surprised to see NPR’s choices for the top 100, including such literary heavyweights as Dostoyevsky’s THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV and Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet.
Don’t get me wrong – I love me some Lawrence Durrell (I represent his estate in the US for crying out loud) and you should absolutely buy JUSTINE and take it to the beach or wherever else you want to read it because it’s incredible. It’s just not quite what I’d think of as a “beach” read. It’s a great literary masterpiece after all, and thus I see it more in the “lounging by the fireplace in cold weather” arena.
I think we can do better than NPR.
So. What are your favorite beach reads of all time?
I’ll start with SPHERE by Michael Crichton, CRYPTONOMICON by Neal Stephenson (NPR got that one right), and anything by Jane Austen.
What are your favorites?
Camus Camus Camus. The Stranger, The Plague, The Fall, First Man, even the essays. Camus *is* summer for me.
Not a new book, but one of my favorites – and I've been thinking about it lately since I saw that it'll be out soon as a movie: The Time Traveler's Wife.
When I first read it, I was awed by its structure.
Helen
Straight From Hel
I think of beach reads as being light and funny. So I would say, “The Devine Secretes of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”, “Bridget Jones Diary”, or “How I Paid for College”.
If we're talking page turners, I'll be the first to admit that that was me and The Da Vinci Code.
THE RUINS, by Scott Smith.
(My favorite AQ book is Clea.)
I like a good scary, freaky, dark John Connolly novel. Now if I could only get me some beach!
Nathan, you hit my author first time: Michael Crichton. The two best beach reads for me were Timeline and Prey. Since then, I've read them all.
Which means it's been awhile since I've been on the beach. 🙁
Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
If I'm on a beach (and I live in Canada so this NEVER happens outside of maybe 12 minutes in July), I want funny or fluffy. Or short since I only have 12 minutes.
If I do make it to a real beach (say, in Mexico…Oh, sweet Mexico) I usually save this time for the newest Maeve Binchy or John Grisham. I want to be able to read the entire thing from start to finish (the pool boy would obviously be bringing me drinks during this time).
In Watermelon Sugar, Richard Brautigan – Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut – Wicked, Gregory Maguire
I'm going to stump for some Canadians. First, Robertson Davies. He doesn't get NEARLY the love he deserves in the States, which is a crime, you Yankees, a crime!
My favorite is What's Bred in the Bone, about an a painter who has some unusual experiences during WWII. The entire Deptford Trilogy (Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders) is amazing as well.
They're not hard reads, but they're sneaky-deep, and fascinating — especially if you're a fan of the arts, as many of his books deal with theater, opera, or magic (World of Wonders).
For fluff, try Whale Music, by a Toronto writer named Paul Quarrington, a completely charming story of a reclusive rock star's rebirth, loosely based on Brian Wilson's life.
And I'm taking Charlie Haas' The Enthusiast with me on vacay next week.
To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis, and any Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett (except the first one, which I just wasn't interested in).
YA: Watership Down
Mystery: Anything by Agatha Christie
Thriller: I'm reading Mystic River right now. It'll certainly do.
Fantasy: Lord of the Rings. What else?
Science Fiction: I concur with Nathan – Sphere
Horror: I'm torn… It by Stephen King or Floating Dragon by Peter Straub.
Literary: The Naked and the Dead
Of course, now I'll spend all day going "Ooh ooh! I just remembered X and Y and Z!"
Yeah, Crichton, Brown — those are definitely beach readers. Early Grisham and King, too.