July Is Beach-Read Month at 1book140

Nominate titles for the next installment of our Twitter-based book club.

(New to the book club? Read the 1book140 primer here.)

We tend to read some heavy books here at 1book140. In the Name of the Rose. Kafka on the Shore. Right Ho, Jeeves. And then, come summer, we like to amble down to the shore in our flip flops, lay back under the umbrella and take in a long, cool, drink of something tasty, frothy, and fun.

What constitutes a beach book? Well, as the back and forth on Twitter today makes clear, "beachiness," as a literary quality, is in the eye of the beholder. For me, frankly, it might consist of some choice Gordon S. Wood. Others might prefer something a little more cerebral. Last year we picked Marie Phillips's Gods Behaving Badly, which hit the spot perfectly. (If anyone's looking for more guidance, check out last year's nomination page.)

So July will be our second annual Big Beach Read-a-long. Many of you have been lobbying for Raymond Bradbury. Sounds distinctly unbeachy to me, but bookies rule the roost here at 1book140, so if there are lots of Bradbury nominations, we'll represent that on the short list. As always, happy reading, and happy nominating.