Welcome to the Beach Reads Giveaway Hop, hosted by Stuck in Books.

This is my second hop in a row featuring beach reads – a term that still requires some definition. It seems that anything light and fluffy and usually paperback can be defined as a beach read if it comes out in the summer. I think the paperback idea got added in the definition because paperbacks fit in one’s beach bag and one doesn’t usually mind getting sand on or in them. They’re kind of disposable.

Of course, if I were reading on a beach I’d probably just wrap my iPad in a Ziploc bag. I do mind if it gets sand on or in it – and I certainly mind it if gets wet!

But while you’re reading at the beach, I’ll probably be over here, in the coolth (the opposite of warmth) of my air conditioner – absorbed in a good book.

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For more fabulous bookish prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop!

Welcome to the Beach Reads Giveaway Hop, hosted by Stuck in Books.

Barnes & Noble may be having some difficulties, but they have a terrific definition for “beach reads”:

A beach read is a delicate and complicated combination of characteristics: it must be light enough to make you smile while simultaneously being absorbing enough to make you risk sunburn because you simply can’t stop turning the pages (books are the cause of approximately 85% of any bookworm’s sunburns).

While you may not have an actual beach to read on (Atlanta is landlocked, after all) the idea that summer reading is a bit, well, lighter and fluffier than reading the rest of the year seems fairly well established. Your mileage, including your mileage to a beach, may vary. And everyone’s definition of what constitutes “light and fluffy” may also have a certain amount of variance.

When I was in college and grad school, anything that wasn’t part of a class assignment constituted “light and fluffy”. Summer and Winter Break were the only times I had any significant unencumbered and unassigned reading time.

Now, of course, it’s whatever I want it to be. And my definition of “light” has changed to any book that I can’t put down, from the fluffiest romance to the most exciting, but possibly gloomy, epic fantasy. I just want to be so absorbed that I don’t notice that sunburn, or in my case the cat gravity that is putting my legs and feet to sleep.

What about you? What makes a book a “beach read” for you? And which ones are you most looking forward to diving into this summer? Give us your upcoming beach reads for a chance at either a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a copy of the book itself (as long as it’s less than $10).

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And for more chances at more beachy and bookish prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop!

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