What do you think makes a book a beach read?

maestraw@msn.com
A beach read is, for me, one that does not require me to think. It is mindless reading, and not searching for hidden meanings. It is a book I can start and stop, as I walk to the water's edge to cool off.

JNLowenth@aol.com
A book is beachworthy when it focuses your interest so intensely that nothing can distract you. I remember reading Before and After by Rosellen Brown on the beach and moaning into the deafening sound of the waves.

Mary from Hagerstown
What makes a book a beach read? A quick moving mystery, a delightful or poignant story, a fantasy. All can become beach reads. A beach read is a book that can be read while lying in the sun, basking by the waves, or simply sitting in a comfortable lounge chair while taking the reader away from the stress of everyday life. It's a mini-vacation in itself. It's fun, it's interesting, and it's a quick read.

jscady@efieldguide.com
A "Beach Read" must be thick enough to last a week, light enough to read without a dictionary and able to be put down and picked up without rereading parts. Also, it should be not so absorbing that you can't give it up if something better to do comes your way. W.E.B. Griffin's books are good beach reads because I usually don't need an atlas for them.

nunu@cogeco.ca
My opinion is any book is a good beach read if you are a true reader.

Catslady5@aol.com
I consider a beach read the same as any other unless there is a book I have been wanting to read for a while and for some reason haven't, so it would be something nice to look forward to like the vacation.

MsJTurner@aol.com
A good beach book for me is one that has romance, adventure and a happy ending!

dyang7@nyc.rr.com
What makes a book a beach read...it's easy to read, fast-paced and hard to put down.

DISTEFANO@aol.com
I always watch for new releases by my favorite authors in the summer months, then save my absolute favorites for the beach. A good beach read must be a page-turner, a book that I don't want to put down. This is important to me because this is the one time when I can actually sit for long hours with my book uninterrupted, and I want to be absolutely sure it is worth it.

ticpen@maqs.net
I like to take a few different types of books to the beach: a heavy duty one like H. Ryder Haggard or Shakespeare for some serious time, and a few light reading books just for the enjoyment of reading: anything by Jodi Picoult or Jennifer Chiaverini. That way my mind has a few options.

Babs48rn@cs.com
A book that keeps your eyes on the page.

MScaramell@aol.com
What makes a book a good beach read? I'd have to say that a cover, spine, and exciting story make a good beach read. In other words, ANY good book makes a good beach read!!!

Impls117@aol.com
A good beach read has to be more engaging than the view around it. I always take a book to the beach, but it usually gets read in the bathtub back at the motel.

Seabird328@aol.com
This is the forever question for book lovers! Which to take to the beach, which ones to delegate to summer reading? Usually it's softcover or paperback to avoid the deadly sand and sunscreen on the dust cover. It's somehow against the laws of the universe to sully a hardcover with lotion and Pina Colada sips!

There's the light reading like Plantation by Dorothea Benton Frank, anything by Anne Rivers Siddons, and The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner (great intro to Gardner and sizzles like none other). Then there are the favorite mystery/thriller writers, some new to me, all released in paperback like Randy Wayne White and his Doc Ford novels, a Greg Iles tome like The Quiet Game all the way to page 559 and vintage Lee Child like Tripwire. Anything by Michael Connelly, especially his Harry Bosch series. The beach and Harry are heavenly.

To scare you and help you play with the bad boy/good boy type there is Keith Ablow with his psychiatrist main character, Frank Clevenger. He meets all manner of dastardly, disturbed and lethal people just by waking up every day. What a life.

No self-help, no serious tomes about the state of the economy, political diatribes or textbook-type history lessons. It's summer and the reading is easy like Janet Evanovich and her bounty hunter character Stephanie Plum. So, it seems it's sex, love, rock and roll, mystery and mayhem and families with roots who have angst and melodrama. That's a beach book for me.

sycomom@earthlink.net
Something light and funny that doesn't require too much thinking.

lisaavila2000@yahoo.com
Something light and funny and a quick read.

lket@johnroberts.com
A good beach read has some mystery or intrigue, not too topic-heavy, and fairly lengthy.

Vickie, Roswell, Georgia
Must be a light topic with humor and some suspense. It also must be a light book; I've got to be able to lift it for hours with one hand, while I lie on the beach sipping a Diet Coke.

michrose@wi.rr.com
Any book that gets me so engrossed I've forgotten about sunscreen, what time it is, or hey...when did the sun go down?

mouseshouse@comcast.net
I believe that a Beach Read book is one that captures your interest so much that you cannot put it down. The beach is a quiet place and to have a book that sends you into another world makes it perfect.

amy.gross@cingular.com
It has to be entertaining but not too deep. Something lighthearted.

Nellie
The last book I passed on to someone was The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen. It is a light book to read, but the story itself is excellent. It is a marvelous romance and is worth every penny.

Anonymous
To be a good beach read, it must either be a good page-turner, such as a mystery, or else a fun, lighthearted romance.

GAPCH3301@aol.com
I think a beach read is a book that is really a good story but you do not have to think a lot to keep up with it. It flows smoothly. It is just a
relaxing book.

Anonymous
The thing that makes a good beach read in my mind is a book that has a happy ending. I also like books that take me some place I have never been. It's a wonderful feeling to be transported to a different country or culture without having to leave the beach!

ras-c@cox.net
To me, a beach read is a not-too-long, not-too-involved novel with not too many different characters in it. It should be light, interesting and in some cases, humorous.

Ter5353@aol.com
A great 'beach read' book should quickly engage the reader --- have a good blend of humor and suspense/mystery --- and be as light and easy to swallow as a frothy, fruity beach drink (think: peach daiquiris and strawberry margaritas).

When I choose a book for the beach, I want something that will thoroughly entertain me, not make me think too much, and tickle my senses --- maybe with a little romance.

Peggy in TX
What makes a good beach or summer read is a book whose story you can get lost in, savor the characters, and takes you to the time and place. Last book that I really got totally lost in to the point that I have never been so caught up since was The Winds of War by Herman Wouk so many years ago --- and yet I can still remember the way that I was drawn in to the world leading up to the outbreak of WWII. Such an experience is hard to duplicate; others have been close but not matched.

Anonymous
Generally a beach read would be a book that is entertaining and on the light side. I would expect it to have a human-interest story and a good plot that holds your interest.

ygrisafi@adelphia.net
To me, a beach book would be a quick read. Either a romantic thriller as Andrea Kane's I'll Be Watching You or a quick mystery/thriller. James Patterson's 4th of July is a quick beach read as well. I need something to get my teeth in, but then again that's always the case, beach or not.

bgseals1@comcast.net
The books I take to the beach are usually fun, light, and easy reads. I don't want anything too heavy or dark at the beach. The best book I read at the beach this year was The Kite Runner. A lady sitting next to me at the beach recommended it to me. I went that night and bought it. It is a MUST for everyone to read whether at the beach or at home!

Rickimc@aol.com
Fast-paced and does not require much thinking.

prwamsley@adelphia.net
I think a book that is beachworthy should not be too thick, you should be able to read it fairly quickly. It should be interesting enough to keep you reading, but not take a whole lot of brainpower because when you're at the beach, there are a lot of distractions. The best kind of book in my opinion is a mystery.

DeadlyDee@aol.com
I think what makes a book a great beach read is a light, fast-paced book, one that doesn't require a lot of thinking, but is entertaining. An example of a great beach read would be any of the Shopaholic books.

Donna from South Carolina
My answer is: A book that is beachworthy is one that is impossible to put down even when you are dripping in sweat!!! Yes, you know that feeling when the beach is so hot that you just need to jump in the ocean. Well, if the book is a great read, you continue reading until you finish that chapter. Then you quickly get wet, just to cool off and run back to your blanket to read more!!

sherryweddle@wowway.com
A great beach book makes me feel as if I'm completely in the story, preferably a fun and sexy romance, where I get tingly all over when they kiss, tears in my eyes when they have problems, and I sigh happily when it ends. I also love a good mystery or suspense but that gives me hope and a happy ending. Enough gloom and doom! (That's why I won't bring newspapers to read!)

smleonetti@yahoo.com
Beach reads must be paperback so that they can endure the dangers of traveling...while they can be too heavy or too educational they must be well-written, fiction or nonfiction. They must be "light" enough so that you can watch a handsome man walk down the beach and not have to reread the paragraph!

Valerie.Fuente@allscripts.com
For me, a beach read has to be fairly light in topic but interesting enough to want to read, preferably funny, and easy to pick up and put down often without losing the continuity of the story. The best beach read I've read so far this year: Tuscany for Beginners by Imogen Edwards-Jones.

BRANDEE_PRICE@msn.com
A good beach read would have a quick-paced, well-developed plot, interesting characters, and its subject matter should be "light" for easy reading.

Pagadan@aol.com
You know you're going to enjoy it and possibly even reread it.