Image from Amazon
Books and the beach make a perfect match, after all it is hard to enjoy a day in the sun (or in the shade of an umbrella) without something good to read. The folks at NPR asked their listeners to vote on their favorite beach books. Over 16,000 people casted about 36,000 votes. Some of the books on the list may surprise you. As it turns out NPR listeners enjoy a vampire romance thriller like Charlaine Harris's Dead Until Dark (#94) as much as they enjoy classics like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (#21) or Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (#71). For you Twilight fans out there, Stephenie Meyer's vampire/human love story comes in at 30.
It is no surprise that The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling was number one on the list. The rest of the top 10 best beach reads are:
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
4. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
10. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Authors like Barbara Kingsolver, Cormac McCarthy, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez made the list multiple times. If you were curious what the 100th best beach read was, that honor goes to Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. You can see a list of all 100 titles here. Stop by your local library or bookstore and grab one of these titles on your way to the beach. Happy reading!
Comments
Kind of a generic list, no? Pretty much just what people will read anyway. Then again, I hate the beach- at least in the sumnmer I do. Me? I'd bring a bunch of comic books or the newspaper- cut a couple of holes for my eyes Benny Hill style- and do some people watching.
Thank you.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!