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The term “beach reading” has only been popular since the 1990s, when publishers started to use it to market light summer reading. But the tradition of summer reading is much older: it dates back to the early 19th century.
In his immersive article, Julian Novitz quotes Fran Leibowitz: “I have no guilty pleasures because pleasure never makes me feel guilty.” This should be our attitude to recreational reading all the time, he says – but the summer beach read is our best opportunity to embrace it.
What are you planning for your summer reading this year? Will you catch up on a classic? Dive into a thriller or romance? Both options would fit tradition. Summer reading began as a refined pastime: according to one early writer, the volumes of Lord Byron epitomised “perfect” summer reading. By the 1870s, though, American publishers were capitalising on a popular trend for “sensationalist, diverting fictions” to accompany summer travel.
Novitz says the best beach reads can be chance encounters: his copy of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, picked up from a backpackers’ in 1999, is now falling apart from repeated re-reads. One of my very favourite books is a library book I took a chance on during a summer visit to my childhood home: Barbara Trapido’s literary romp, Brother of the More Famous Jack.
Whatever you choose as your personal beach read, kicking back by the water with a book is a great way to release yourself from the stresses of the year.
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