Ask the Booksellers:What Is a ‘Beach Read,’ Anyway?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/books/beach-reads-bookstores.html

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Sunscreen, water bottle, umbrella: check. You can’t forget a book — but how to choose? We spoke to booksellers in popular vacation destinations across the country about how they define the perfect “beach read,” their predictions for this year’s best sellers and more. Their answers have been edited and condensed.

Cannon Beach, Ore.

Tell me about your summertime customers.

Tourists make up most of our customers year-round. But in the summer the town probably grows to five times its usual size. It’s an amazing difference. Because of that, we have a very diverse customer base that allows us to take risks with books that may not be huge sellers but will be just the right book for someone.

How do you buy and prepare for the season?

We try to order everything ahead of time so that when things start to really pick up — from about July 4 through Labor Day — we can spend time with customers and not be tied up placing orders. Summer’s really the only time of year when we stock lighter reads, books for people to take to the beach.

Forecasting our customers’ taste is really like a sixth sense, and there’s an art to it. The books we sell by the case are not necessarily on every best-seller list, but they’re ones we love. Generally if our staff loves it, our customers will love it, too.

Any predictions for the store’s most popular books this season?

If we had to guess: Mark Helprin’s “Paris in the Present Tense,” “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles, Michael Ondaatje’s “Warlight,” Joanna Cannon’s “The Trouble With Goats and Sheep,” Amor Towles’ “A Gentleman in Moscow,” Helene Stapinski’s “Murder in Matera,” Madeleine Albright’s “Fascism: A Warning” and “Love, Africa,” by Jeffrey Gettleman.

Tisbury, Mass.

How do you prepare before the summer crowds hit?

The population on Martha’s Vineyard swells to about 100,000 in the summer from about 16,000. We see a lot more foot traffic, and a lot more families. We’re lucky that we have voracious readers here year-round, but we do tend to buy some lighter books before the summer — our taste here can run a little dark. [Laughs] Our winters are very long, and very gray!

What makes something a beach read, in your mind?

Elin Hilderbrand is an author I always think of. Her books are well-written and pretty light. Some readers want literary fiction, and consider that an escape. They’re not necessarily reading Proust on the beach, but they want something toothier than what you’d pick up at the supermarket or the airport on the way here.

Any predictions for your biggest sellers this summer?

I can guarantee “Spying on the South,” the new book by Tony Horwitz — he’s a resident — will be a big one for us. There’s a book festival on the vineyard in August, and we usually sell a lot of books by the authors who appear. And I’ll put “The Friend” by Sigrid Nunez in anyone’s hands!

Rehoboth Beach, Del.

How do you get ready for the summer? Is it any different than the buying you do during the rest of the year?

It's like buying for two separate stores. Our clientele is so much larger in the summer, so we have to adjust. You also have a real sense of immediacy in the summer. Since we have a transient audience, I have a very short window of opportunity to order a book for someone before they turn to Amazon, the Voldemort of booksellers.

In your mind, what makes something a great beach book?

In my mind, a beach read is something that’s “unputdownable,” whatever that means to you. We have a table up front that’s beach-themed — lots of blue and white covers, lots of paperbacks that people want to pick up and grab, lots of Elin Hilderbrand — and that table pays our bills for the rest of the year.

What’s selling well right now? What do you think could be the ‘it’ book of the summer?

Rehoboth Beach is known as “the Nation’s Summer Capital,” so any books that people in Washington are talking about will be popular here. I’m betting our customers will love Jill Biden’s new memoir — she and Joe Biden have a home nearby, and drop by the bookstore from time to time. We sell a lot of smart women’s fiction: Sally Rooney’s new novel, “Normal People,” is popular, and so are Laura Lippman’s books.

I’m surprised there’s anyone left on Earth who hasn’t read “Where the Crawdads Sing,” by Delia Owens, but that keeps selling well, too.

Belfast, Me.

What’s your clientele like in the summer?

We have a mix of people who live here in the summer and tourists who pass through. The tourists are always very interested in books about the state, so we have a big section for that.

Who are some of the Maine authors you’d recommend?

Linda Greenlaw, both her mysteries and nonfiction. Paul Doiron has a popular series about a game warden — it’s very Maine. And we’ve got Lily King, Christina Baker Kline, Richard Russo and many others.

Any predictions for this year’s best sellers?

We can’t keep “Where the Crawdads Sing” on the shelves — it’s been flying out of here. I’m betting that David McCullough’s new book, “The Pioneers,” will be a hit, too. And Abdi Nor Iftin’s book, “Call Me American.”

Fairhope, Ala.

Tell me about your summertime customers.

We get people from all across the world, people who want to come and learn what the South is really like. I always steer them toward our local authors, like Rick Bragg and Sonny Brewer. People often want to leave here with gifts that really capture the South, so those writers are a great introduction.

What are the best books for someone who wants to understand the South?

“Dispatches From Pluto,” by Richard Grant, Sonny Brewer’s “The Poet of Tolstoy Park,” “My Southern Journey” by Rick Bragg. And Michael Knight’s “Eveningland” — that book sets you on the porch at sunset in the state of Alabama, that’s for sure.

What’s been selling well so far? Any predictions for the top sellers of the summer?

“Where the Crawdads Sing,” of course, and “A Gentleman in Moscow.” A lot of historical fiction, like Julie Berry’s “Lovely War” and Kelly Rimmer’s “The Things We Cannot Say,” too. A lot of women have been buying up all of Anthony Horowitz’s mysteries.

Any other trends you’ve noticed?

Young women are going crazy for “The Mister,” E L James’s new book. It’s a little racy for me — I can’t risk having a heart attack!