Despite threats from Hurricane Bill, we've hit the beach every day since arriving on Cape Cod last Friday. The water's lovely! (That makes me think of Ruth Rendell. Perhaps I should write an entire blog entry composed of book titles!) Seriously, it is: warm, but not too warm. I detest swimming in bathwater; I have some Yankee gene for polar-bear-like conditions, and I seem to have passed it on to my daughters, who can spend incredibly long periods of time in the surf before returning to their beach towels.

However, everyone needs to rest and dry off at some point, and that's when you can find us sitting, lying, and in some cases draped over inner tubes -- reading. In fact, one of our favorite activities in the evenings is to take frisbee, kites, chairs -- and books -- to another local beach and just chill. Some of us wear MP3 players while reading, others just listen to the waves, gulls, and wind. The grownups are usually draped in towels and wearing hats, while the kids soak up as much sun as possible (while thickly coated in sunblock!). 

No matter what combo platter of sights and sounds and attire we all choose, we all find the beach to be one of the most relaxing places to read that there is. What about you? Do you like to read on the beach, too? 

Yesterday, I was engrossed in Lies My Mother Never Told Me by Kaylie Jones (it's out in a week or so; I was reading the ARC). My husband chose Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan, meaning that for once, he was reading fiction and I was reading nonfiction -- a rare occurrence! Our teenaged daugther has been reading through the Emily Giffin books, and our pre-teen is in the middle of her latest Sarah Dessen. What's your beach reading?