100 Best Beach Books Ever: Final Voting
Voting Is Closed
Last month, we asked the NPR audience to send in nominations for the Best Beach Books Ever. You came through with some 600 entertaining, absorbing vacation-appropriate reads. It was a fascinating, if unwieldy list.
With your help, the NPR Books Board — our book reviewers, editors and producers — whittled that list down to a manageable 200 titles, which we now offer for final voting.
The whittling, as you can imagine, lead to lots of discussion about what we mean by a "beach book." While all the books on the list should be enthralling enough to inoculate vacation-goers against the vagaries of missed flights and bad weather, many "great books" aren't great "beach books." Tone, setting and sheer length play their parts. On the other hand, status as a classic isn't an automatic disqualifier; both The Great Gatsby and Pride and Prejudice were popular nominees.
In the end, you'll decide what makes the top 100. Everyone gets 10 votes. Feel free to lobby for your favorites in the comments, below. We'll announce the winners on July 29. Have fun! (Click here for a complete printable list of all the nominations.)
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