a book to take to the beach

June 18, 2007 2:26 PM

Help me complete my ideal vacation setting. I have the hotel and airplane worked out. All I need now is the right book to take to the beach.

I'll be taking a week long vacation. (In the Riviera Maya, if you must know.) I love to sit for long ours near the water and read. Can MeFites suggest a good book?
Must be: Entertaining, not-too-complex, long enough to last me a week and preferably, newish (no classics, please). Oh yeah and, must fit comfortably in a beach bag.

posted by CrazyLemonade to grab bag (15 comments total)

This is embarrassing. That line up there should read "sit for long hours" instead of ours. Ay
posted by CrazyLemonade at 2:29 PM on June 18, 2007

I just read "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. Engrossing story about circus folk circa Great Depression.
posted by sweetkid at 2:32 PM on June 18, 2007

"the amazing adventures of kavalier and klay" by michael chabon is great. long enough to last a week, but in softcover.

"the historian" by elizabeth kostova also meets your criteria.
posted by thinkingwoman at 2:50 PM on June 18, 2007

[snark and countersnark removed - enjoy your summer]
posted by jessamyn at 2:53 PM on June 18, 2007

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
posted by contessa at 2:53 PM on June 18, 2007 [2 favorites]

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. It is a page turner quite appropriate for relaxing on the beach, long enough to last the week, in paperback to fit you beach bag, and good literature to boot.

I just finished In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith. It by no means compares as literature to The Corrections, but I could not help but think what a perfect beach read it would have made. I read it on the plane. Smith is quite an engaging author.
posted by caddis at 2:56 PM on June 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

In the semi-pulpy category, I've been on a Carl Hiaasen bender of late. Not sure it would classify as "literature", but they sure as hell are entertaining.
posted by mcstayinskool at 3:19 PM on June 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

I just spent a week on vacation reading one book (in the Riviera Maya as well!) and I read John Irving's "Until I Find You". Not too heavy but a good story, like most of his novels. I second Kavalier and Klay as well as Middlesex.
posted by hooper4 at 4:27 PM on June 18, 2007

Agree with Middlesex but not with The Corrections. The Corrections is good, but not necessarily for the beach. Also consider Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Or either of the novels by Jonathan Safran Foer. Though be prepared to laugh or cry heartily on the plane.
posted by Toekneesan at 4:51 PM on June 18, 2007

Thanks for everyone's suggestions so far. I think I'll write some of these titles down and go look at the books in person next weekend.

I won't mark any best answers, but I think three people agreeing on Middlesex must mean it's good.

And thinkingwoman's right on "The Historian" meeting my criteria. I finished reading that one last night.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 5:34 PM on June 18, 2007

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, in paperback.
posted by janell at 6:48 PM on June 18, 2007

nth Middlesex. Really enjoyed it!!
posted by pearlybob at 7:54 PM on June 18, 2007

I just finished "Oh the Glory of It All" and *loved* it. Seriously a great read if you enjoyed "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius".

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is also terrific summer reading ...
posted by GatorDavid at 8:21 PM on June 18, 2007

Everything I was going to say has already been mentioned. I was going to mention the Hitchhiker's Guide series. fucking hilarious. I was also going to mention The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (won the pulitzer), which is very well written and very engrossing, as well as substantial without necessarily being too dense for beach reading.

Additionally, I reccomend you do read both of Jonathan Safran Foer's (As well as his wife's novel, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss) novels, as they are stupendously good. However, i would recommend against taking them for beach reading. These are very complex novels, and I think some of their wonderfulness would be lost by reading them casually. Read them on the plane, maybe, when you can put your whole mind on them.

If you're okay with some nonfiction, try either of Mary Roach's books, Stiff and Spook, or Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live. The first is about cadavers, the secon about ghosts, and the third is (loosely) about "why the biggest career move a musican can make is to stop breathing" (it's actually just the story of his trip to visit the places these people died, as a framestory for his musings about life, both his and in general) All three of these are written by journalists, and in that, are written like someone's talking to you, so they're very good for light reading.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 9:36 PM on June 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Riviera Maya? Not "The Ruins" by Scott Smith.
posted by mikepop at 5:54 AM on June 19, 2007