Why I Love... Beach Reads

This time next week, I will be sitting on a (hopefully) sunny beach with a book in hand and the sound of waves in my ear. The Husband and I are taking a belated summer vacation, and I've got two beach reads on my packing list. I love beach reads because, even though the term describes different books for different people, the books are always meant to be sunk into.

My favorite beach reads are big, door-stopper books with entertaining narratives. For our honeymoon, I packed one book from the Clan of the Cave Bear and another from the Outlander series. I'm doing the same for our upcoming trip. I like my beach reads to be easy to follow, but gripping. These books fit the bill. They are high activity and low-stress on my brain. This means I can take a break to look at the waves and not lose my mental bookmark. Their size also means I only need one or two to get me through an entire vacation (travel included). As a bonus, they tend to be paperbacks that are easy to carry and hold for long periods of time.

Beach reads are great because the represent a time of leisure and enjoyment. Books themselves should represent this, but we've so often forced certain reading and titles on people that books become work. Beach reads represent the fun-side of reading. They are a mood rather than a specific genre, and for that, I love them.