If you’re heading to the beach this summer to decompress and unwind, you’ll want to bring along a good book to while away the day as you work that tan. What’s your favorite kind of book to read? Do you like suspense, humour, or a good self-help book? If you’re looking for the right book to read on the beach you’ll likely be looking for something that’s not too deeply involved or a thousand pages long. You want something you can get through in one or two days, right? Here are some suggestions for that perfect beach book.
Suspense/Horror: The Skeleton Crew (waterstones.com £6.99)
If you are one of those who enjoys a real nail-biter or a book you’d be afraid to read alone in a dark house, you might want to consider a book of short stories that will have you turning the pages for more. Consider Stephen King’s Skeleton Crew. This collection of 19 short stories, a novella, and two poems will suck you in to each incredible tale and make you forget where you are. You’ll also have the satisfaction of being able to read a complete story in short order without having to worry about what finally happens in the end. The Skeleton Crew is a great collection of macabre stories to keep you entertained while you sip on your pina colada.
Tear-Jerker: My Sister’s Keeper (amazon.co.uk £5.27)
Bring along lots of tissues for this book that will have you bawling like a baby. My Sister’s Keeper, written by Jodi Picoult, is about a young girl who spends much of her young life in the hospital, donating blood and bone marrow to keep her older sister, who has leukemia, alive. When she becomes a teenager, she sues to keep her family from forcing her to donate a kidney to her sick sister. The story is fast-paced and you may not be able to put it down before the sun sets. On second thought, bring along two boxes of tissues. You’re going to need them.
Humor: The Man’s Book (amazon.co.uk £5.99)
Okay, men, you’re now thinking there has to be a book out there just for you, right? Well, here it is, The Man’s Book by Thomas Fink. This is the essential guide on how to be a man in any circumstance you can possibly find yourself in. Do you know how to make a potato gun? Do you know how to start a fire with a coke bottle or do you fret over which urinal to use? If these issues are keeping you up at night, then this is the perfect book to take with you while lying on the beach. You’ll even learn about wooing women, an important skill if you’re vacationing alone or with your buddies.
Self-Help: Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life (amazon.co.uk £13.50)
Sometimes being on holiday is the perfect time for self-discovery and for learning some new techniques to deal with life’s challenges. Negative thinking can eat you up inside and create self-loathing and very real health issues. This book by Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman offers techniques to acquire a new sense of optimism and ways to break that “I give up” attitude. Derived from more than twenty years of clinical research, Dr. Seligman works to break the chains of pessimism with some innovative ways you may not have tried before.
Now you can head to the beach with a good book in hand and forget about the world around you for a while. Make that spot on the beach your little world of escape where no one else is allowed to enter…
If you have a book you would like to recommend please post it in the comments, we’d love to hear!