beach read

noun

variants or less commonly beach book

plural beach reads also beach books

: a usually light work of escapist fiction (such as a thriller or romance)

… blockbuster beach reads from Tom Clancy, Stephen King and Patricia Cornwell.

—Jeff Guinn

If you're looking for a fun beach read, you could do a lot worse than this tale of rival mediums duking it out in Victorian London.

—Prudence Wade

The idea of the beach read has been maligned by some who consider themselves arbiters of taste, and some critics wield the term with a gently derogatory undertone, but the classic … page-turner remains wildly popular.

—Divya Venkataraman

… a beach book, with brisk plot, a dash of humor and plenty of female bonding.

—Ben Steelman

broadly : any enjoyable or accessible book considered suitable for reading while on vacation (as on a beach)

Can a book of poems be your beach read? Yes.

—Rachel Becker

[Kate] Storey's research gives the book a more intimate feel than many other histories of the Kennedy family. … Fittingly, it's written in an accessible way that makes the book a welcome beach read.

—Andrew Demillo

Sally Bedell Smith has written the nonfiction beach book of the season.

—William E. Leuchtenburg

Examples of beach read in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There's no prize for who had the best vacation, read the most beach reads or made their own ice cream. —Nicole Villalpando, Austin American-Statesman, 23 July 2024

The Netflix adaptation of The Perfect Couple, one of Elin Hilderbrand’s wildly popular beach reads, treats its source material extremely liberally. —Jen Chaney, Vulture, 7 Sep. 2024

Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth's characters fall in love in Netflix's 'Lonely Planet' Comments The plot of Netflix's Lonely Planet feels straight out of a best-selling beach read. —Samantha Stutsman, People.com, 12 Oct. 2024

The book is really like a summer beach read—a thriller. —Samanth Subramanian, WIRED, 9 Oct. 2024

The British actor, almost as a counterpoint to the Nantucket frippery on display in the adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s chart-topping beach read, can now be found on the stage of the prestigious Almeida Theatre in Islington, North London. —Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 1 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above