you feel about the term "beach reads" what i do about "literary fiction." beach reads is reductionist, and literary fiction is snobbery. let's end them both. lol.
I hated that Dakota Johnson comment. Putting shame on readers?? How dare you! The literacy statistics are abysmal. The fact that anyone reads anything is an actual miracle!!!
love this! while i love the term beach read because of what it should be - any book you decide to bring to the beach, or laze by the pool, or even enjoy by the fire all cosily wrapped up.- it frustrates me that it's used to demoralise readers. like you say, some of the most compelling books i've ever read have been romances or young adult books or dare i say the dread phrase, women's fiction (puke). we are so fortunate to have such a vast spectrum of reading material available to suit every person - we don't need to look down on what people do read.
I wrote an anti beach reads guide last year so I agree wholeheartedly with you on this one. It wasn’t anti anything other than the negative connotation.
I love the idea of books being categorised into seasons, at the same time I first read ‘kitchen’ at the beach which is… not the most beach-esque book!! I am a sucker for rom com books, so I’ll admit to benefitting from them being the primary genre that’s categorised into a ‘beach read’ ; it’s very helpful for my summer reading list.
I do love reading on the beach! But the implication that some books have more value than others or that romance or genre novels are less than is not great. At all. I did read Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying on the beach one summer and I loved the book and also felt like it was a funny choice for my locale.
Completely agree with you about beach reads. I’m honestly not a huge fan of the romance genre, but I’ve recently learned that I need to get off my high horse about it because a good book is a good book, dammit.
I read some Emily Henry as an experiment and am drafting a piece on what I discovered. And, you’ve actually given me a jolt of renewed inspiration! So thanks for that! Lol.
you feel about the term "beach reads" what i do about "literary fiction." beach reads is reductionist, and literary fiction is snobbery. let's end them both. lol.
AMEN
I hated that Dakota Johnson comment. Putting shame on readers?? How dare you! The literacy statistics are abysmal. The fact that anyone reads anything is an actual miracle!!!
love this! while i love the term beach read because of what it should be - any book you decide to bring to the beach, or laze by the pool, or even enjoy by the fire all cosily wrapped up.- it frustrates me that it's used to demoralise readers. like you say, some of the most compelling books i've ever read have been romances or young adult books or dare i say the dread phrase, women's fiction (puke). we are so fortunate to have such a vast spectrum of reading material available to suit every person - we don't need to look down on what people do read.
I wrote an anti beach reads guide last year so I agree wholeheartedly with you on this one. It wasn’t anti anything other than the negative connotation.
Great post and it was interesting to see we are mostly neutral about the term.
I love the idea of books being categorised into seasons, at the same time I first read ‘kitchen’ at the beach which is… not the most beach-esque book!! I am a sucker for rom com books, so I’ll admit to benefitting from them being the primary genre that’s categorised into a ‘beach read’ ; it’s very helpful for my summer reading list.
I do love reading on the beach! But the implication that some books have more value than others or that romance or genre novels are less than is not great. At all. I did read Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying on the beach one summer and I loved the book and also felt like it was a funny choice for my locale.
Completely agree with you about beach reads. I’m honestly not a huge fan of the romance genre, but I’ve recently learned that I need to get off my high horse about it because a good book is a good book, dammit.
I read some Emily Henry as an experiment and am drafting a piece on what I discovered. And, you’ve actually given me a jolt of renewed inspiration! So thanks for that! Lol.