Lounge Chair Reading and You - A Water Glass Special Summer Report

I never understood why some books were considered "Beach Reads" as opposed to "Everywhere Else Reads." After all, a book is a book is a book. No matter where you read it, right?

Of course, calling a book a "Beach Read" is really just a marketing term to help sell books at airports, creating a need amongst summer travelers. Ooh! I'm going to the beach, but I don't have a book! Better buy one. But is there something to reading a lighter, frothier book while on vacation?

As one who has recently returned from a fantastic summer weekend in Las Vegas, let me tell you there is definitely something to be said for having a light read on your vacation with you. This weekend, the book I was reading had to compete with this view from my poolside lounge chair:

Not to mention all the good looking scantily clad male and female specimens passing back and forth (sometimes wet!) in front of my view. So even though I had a very light book with me, I still only managed a paragraph or two during the two hours we were doing our lounging. I refuse to blame the book though. It was entirely my fault. I was distracted by a delicious iced tea, the ever approaching hot desert sun, perfectly timing a dip in the pool, and eavesdropping on my neighbors.

Instead, I finally managed to take a bite out of the book on Sunday when my flight home was delayed nearly three hours. Were I to have more poolside time, I swear this would be the perfect book:

Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts' Sci-Fi/Mystery pseudonym) is book #26 in the In Death series that I have been reading since a good friend turned me onto them in college. The books are funny, romantic, and with just enough mystery to keep me turning the pages, though I don't recommend starting the series in the middle. The books have settled into a definite rhythm, following a murder investigation as led by Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the New York Police Department circa 2060, and populated with a funny and enjoyable cast of supporting characters. I pepper my reading with these books, because they are easy reads, a welcome break from some of the heavier denser books I tend to select for myself, but most importantly, because I always want to spend 400 or so pages with Roberts' delightful and compelling characters.

So yes, there is such a thing as summer reading, but don't ask me to read it only during the summer time. How boring would that be?