To Beach Their Own: Beach Reads are Real Reads

Happy Summer.  I don’t know about you, but when I go to the beach, I immediately want to perfect my backstroke in the ocean, windsurf, and play an intense five rounds of beach volleyball. Okay, I’m absolutely kidding. If I go to the beach, I want to sit in a turtleneck of SPF coverage, put my beach towel as far as possible from anyone else, and get lost in a book.  Not just any book, though — I want a Beach Read™. If there isn’t a charming beach town, two people looking for love, or a possible murder mystery set in said (deceptively) charming beach town solved by these two people looking for love, then sorry, I just don’t want it. I want snappy dialogue that is both slightly cheesy, yet entirely heartwarming.  I want descriptions of the foamy ocean surf and peachy-pink sunsets.  But you know what I want most of all? I want to enjoy my beach reads without shame.

 The Anatomy of a Beach Read

Okay, so what makes a beach read? According to The Guardian, a “beach read” was originally devised as a marketing tool in the 1990s, used by publishers to announce their late spring and summer releases. Contrary to its name, the setting does not necessarily have to be a beach -- rather, the key element of a beach read is that it brings on a beach state of mind. You want to be transported from the sand on which you’re currently laying to the hazy, sepia-toned climes of this fictional beach, where the protagonist may walk dramatically along the sand while contemplating their inner turmoil, or to a simpler world where two people can fall in love on a Nantucket wharf. A beach read should be light, not always in subject matter (as some argue) but in readability. It should be digestible -- a page-turner -- not something so dull or heavy that it distracts from the summertime mentality. Beach reads, therefore, can span genres broadly -- fiction, both adult and YA, but also romance and mystery. Themes often surround anything from love and familial relationships to secrets, past tragedies, and inner and outer reflection. The settings are often the perfect writer’s tool, but what exactly is it about the “beach” that sparks these themes of contemplation and change?  Without overthinking it, it very much could be the stories’ simple root in the time of year — summer represents nostalgia for warm days spent with family and friends, not a care in the world except for which ice-cream flavor to order. For those, too, who work in education or experienced a traditional American school model, summer also represents a distinct metamorphosis -- the metaphorical New Years Eve before the New Years Day that is the fall season, a time for refreshment, a new school year, and other beginnings.

Key Texts in the Beach Read "Canon"

Considering what beach reads have come to represent, it should be no surprise that authors, rather than specific titles, come more to mind when it comes to the sub-genre. Critics will say this is because they are such quick reads, as commercial “pulp” novels, and therefore can be written, published, read and disposed of en [forgettable] masse. I argue instead that it is much more nuanced than that, and the way readers relate to these books is tied to the versatility of the sub-genre. There is an absolute wealth of human stories to be told set within a beach community.  It is the perfect backdrop in which cast, characters and relatable situations can present themselves. There’s an instant comfort factor --  a comfort factor that extends even beyond the stories themselves. I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for that soft, hazy pastel sky on an Elin Hilderbrand novel. The second I see that Nicholas Sparks cover with the blue ocean or a colorful beach umbrella, I just know, “Here they are, the people I will be spending my vacation with.” (Apologies to my actual family.) I immediately add the latest Jennifer Weiner to my library stack because I just know it will deliver the right measure of escapism, comfort, and poignancy. When selecting a beach read, consider this humble plea: a good beach read is not a time to experiment. Yes, you’ve always been meaning to get around to reading Moby Dick (and good for you), but let’s be real with ourselves and know we are not going to actually read that on vacation. It will sit idle, it's dark cover getting hot in the afternoon sun while you inevitably fall asleep. 
Just embrace it, the summer is meant for beach reads.

The Elephant in the Room: Why the Shame?

Sadly, another key component of the beach read is the slight guilt in admitting what you’re reading: “Oh, nothing serious, it’s just a beach read.” If you’ve ever tried to subtly hide the cover of a book in your lap to occlude the gazes of passersby, you know what shame I’m talking about. This guilt is inextricably tied to sexism and the denigration of “chick lit,” and I would urge you to read this 2014 essay in The New Yorker on author Jennifer Weiner’s call for representation and bringing to light the disproportionate attention given to male writers in the literary world.  Maybe I’m part of the problem, even referring to such a sub-genre as “beach reads,” where the term is often used disparagingly to suggest that such books are fluffy, silly, and for women alone -- as if a book that can be enjoyed on a beach cannot be a serious novel. But does the location where a novel is set, or where it’s most commonly read, make it any less serious?  As a person, I’m certainly less serious when on a beach, but my head isn’t completely in the sand. These stories have compelling plots, complex characters, and, of course, a comforting setting. Isn’t that why we read? When answering that question at a keynote speech at the 2013 Renfrew conference, Jennifer Weiner stated “Yes, to understand the world, and, of course, to meet characters that are alive and visceral. But, at least to me, sometimes we do read to make friends. Sometimes we do read to escape, or find comfort, or to spend time in a world that is a little more fair and a little more kind than the world that we inhabit.” This summer, you can find me on a beach, socially distanced, with a book high in the air, and no effort to hide the cover. 

5 beach read- new and classic- to make you a believer: