Are “Beachy Reads” Too Cliquey?
Why summer reading has some readers feeling left out
Summer might be hanging on by a thread, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t time to find that perfect summer read. Whether you’re planning a last-minute getaway or soaking up the last rays of summer sunshine at the neighborhood pool, pack a beach read or pool book and escape into another world for a while.
While vacation reading has been a popular pastime for book lovers for decades, the phrase “beach read” has only recently gained traction as a book marketing tool. According to an article by Michelle Dean published in The Guardian, the beach read is a phrase that was coined in the 1990s by book trade publications such as Publisher’s Weekly. Over the years, popular beach reads have been easy to spot with their colorful cover art and playful fonts. Examples of 2021’s marketed beach reads on Amazon include titles such as Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation, and Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner.
But has beach marketing edged other books out of the game? What does a “beachy” read really mean?
While some may argue that the beach read category is a pointless category that’s only meaningful to publishers clamoring to get mass-market attention for new releases, others stand by the genre…
