11 June 2013

Surf's Up, Dudes!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Combining both a passion for all things bookish with an obsessive love of list-making, this rad meme was born. This week's post is Top Ten Beach/Poolside Reads.

This is an interesting topic this week because I’ve never really pondered what classifies a book as “beach-readable” to me. What I’ve noticed is that my beach reads don’t typically conform to one specific genre or subject matter. I guess it boils down to me preferring something on the lighter side, something that will make me laugh. Also, books heavy on the action are usually a safe bet because they’re likely to be paired with a deliciously summery cocktail (or two)!


Married With Zombies by Jesse Petersen – I read this book on my Costa Rican honeymoon and it was super funny and loaded with zombified action (which I can never get enough of). I think I read the entire thing in one pool-side, piña colada fueled marathon and loved every minute of it.

Jaws by Peter Benchley – Worst beach read ever? How about BEST beach read ever!?

The Second Assistant: A Tale from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder by Clare Naylor & Mimi Hare – This fun, lighthearted book was one of the first contemporary reads I’d ever picked up. Plus I can never resist stories about Tinseltown!

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks – Because you can never be TOO prepared. I mean, who’s to say the zombie apocalypse won’t begin at the beach?! Have you ever played the game Dead Island? Beaches and pools, people! HELLOOOO!

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown – Predictable maybe? But full of action, mystery and history. This is one book that’s easy to read and hard to put down!

You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News: Shocking but Utterly True Facts by Cracked.com – I’m a HUGE fan of the humour sites articles and this compendium is chalk full of them.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner – Though I didn’t love this book, I certainly liked it enough to recommend it given a few reservations. I guess most of my warm fuzzies come from the fact that I read it at an outdoor café during the summer with a latte in hand. It was a good experience that I think would translate well for dystopian beginners who are on the beach.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris – This is the first book in Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series and still one of my favourites to date.

The Ex-Factor by Andrea Semple – I had to add at least one girly book to my list. This one is heavy on the drama but doesn’t make you think too much which isn’t to say all girlie books are this way, but I like that in a beach read. Plus it’s deceptively British which is always a good thing!

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater – Welp, it takes place on the beach. And has killer horses, so why not?


What do you look for in a beach read? Do you tend to pull books by genre or is your list more varied, like mine? Have you read any of these books? If so, do you think you’d enjoy them pool-side as well?

15 comments:

  1. The Scorpio Races made my list as well! :) I'll have to check out the others on your list.

    My TTT

    Brandy @ A Little of the Book Life

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    1. Aww, yay! I thought the beachy setting was just perfect for this week's list! I'm interested to see what other books make your TTT!

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  2. Anonymous6/11/2013

    Jaws at the beach? LOL. I like your variety -- zombies, vampires, Dan Brown? Awesome list.

    Lisa

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    1. Ha, thanks Lisa! Yes, I try not to stick to any one particular genre --- even at the beach. And if you hadn't noticed, I do love a good sense of irony in the Jaws thing!

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  3. Mine list would be varied too - but ti is all the time :-) I loved The Scorpio Races too.

    Tanya Patrice
    Girlxoxo.com

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    1. Indeed! Thanks for checking out my list, Tanya!

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  4. It's been years since I read it, but I remember liking The Second Assistant (and its companion). I still need to read The Maze Runner, but have heard great things. Great list! Thanks for stopping by mine!

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    1. Those books were probably my first real foray into the contemporary genre, and I really liked both of them! The Maze Runner is decent (I liked not loved it) and is kind of perfect if you're just getting into dystopia as a genre.

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  5. The only one of these I've read is THE SCORPIO RACES which is one of my favorite books of all time! I could read it at any season of the year. But Jaws? IDK. I think I'd be afraid to get in the water. Though ZOMBIES sound fun. I don't think I'll ever read the Sookie Stackhouse series. I hear there's drama over the finale, tho? Fun list! Thanks for reading mine too

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    1. Anytime, Lauren! The Scorpio Races is definitely a good one, for sure. It could've used more man-eating horses though! ;)

      And yes, Jaws. Ironically perfect for the beach (especially if you're a Stephen King fan). Married With Zombies is light-hearted, witty and fun, even for the non-zombie folks. As for the Sookie series --- I liked the first few books but it got really old really fast. I'll probably read the last book b/c my OCD tendencies won't let me NOT read it, but I'm kind of over it already.

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  6. "And has killer horses, so why not?" Ha ha, I like that. :) Finally, someone else who seems to feel the same way about The Maze Runner as I did! Except I didn't read it in any fun places, but seriously, it was pretty good, but not amazing. And the books after it just didn't really deliver everything I wanted from them.

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    1. If you couldn't already tell, my sense of humour is somewhat on the macabre side.

      YES! I had such high expectations for The Maze Runner and it fell short, but it wasn't a terrible book (especially when compared to the sequels). I think I was most upset about the final book and, for me, it didn't end in a satisfactory way. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

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  7. This is such an awesome eclectic list! It's fantastic

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    1. Thank you, Elizabeth! Have you read any of these books yet?

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  8. Nice list! I need to read Jaws one day. I dislike Dan Brown for some odd reason. I tried reading DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons and found them both just meh.

    I like trashy, steamy romances that are set during the hot months in the summertime. I also enjoy Elin Hilderbrand's summer novels. Funny, I recently Instagrammed that I only read Marquez in the summer. He's another beach read favorite. Partly because some of his stories are set in tropical climates, but also because it just happened to be that I've taken his books with me on vacation and have memories of reading his work beach/lakeside.

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You stay classy now! And thanks for stopping by. But mostly stay classy.

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