A Beach Book for All Seasons
We all know what a beach book is, right? It’s a book you’d read at the beach, duh. More specifically, in my opinion, a beach book is an easy read. You’re going to get through it quickly, say, over the span of a trip to the beach, so a long weekend or maybe a week (though if I’m gone for a week, I tend to bring two books just to be safe). It’s also not usually a book that’s going to make you think overmuch. I mean, I brought the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft to the beach once, but I’m weird. When you’re at the beach, you’re distracted. You’re going to be talking to people, you’ll be in and out of the water, you’re going to be doing stuff. That means you need a book you can pick up and put down with ease.
This year I have the perfect example from my own trip this past summer.
One of the books I brought to the beach was The Grimrose Girls, by Laura Pohl. The cover caught my eye, the description sounded up my alley—classic fairytale retellings with a dark academia setting, some of the quotes even mentioned a favorite show of mine, Grimm—so I snagged it, and, sure enough, I devoured it. I would also probably rate it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Now, I don’t mean that in any disrespectful way; I’ve said from the get-go that I’d be happy with nothing but 3 star reviews for my own novel, Mattson Academy. For me, it did exactly what it needed to, nothing more and nothing less. It was fun, it was compelling, I liked most of the characters, and I wanted to see where it went. I called the ending miles out, but that’s ok, because I wasn’t looking for for a brain teaser. I was looking to relax on vacation. I got to feel smart, enjoy a fun story, and plow through a book in a few days
I love books like that. I’m a busy guy. I’ve got a job, and I write, and I coach soccer, and I take my kid to other sports, and occasionally I even spend time with my family. I don’t have time to read a deep, life-changing book that’s going to make me reevaluate my life every other week. Sometimes I just want something fun. A beach book.
So why do we limit those books to the beach? I would have read Grimrose Girls any time of year and enjoyed it just as much. In fact, just writing this has reminded me that it has a sequel, and now I’m considering picking that up as well. I like to think Mattson Academy fits into this category as well. I didn’t set out to shift any worldviews or impart any powerful life lessons. I wanted to write a fun story, as much for myself as anyone else. A lot of the reviews I’ve gotten have confirmed this. They’ve said that in addition to being enjoyable (which I’m glad to hear), it’s a “quick read.” That’s what I hoped for. I like thicker books too. They’ve got their place and they’re worth reading, it’s just harder to make time for them sometimes. Sometimes you have to steal a few minutes here and there and get a few pages in while you can, and it’s nice to actually be able to get through a book that way and not have forgotten the beginning by the time you reach the end.
I said from day one that if Mattson Academy were considered a beach book, I’d be proud of it. The beach is my favorite place to read, and I love a good beach book, but I want to get away from that term. Call it a light read, call it a book snack, call it whatever you have to, but don’t save it for the summer. Pick one up and read it now!
