I need a book for the beach

As I alluded to a few weeks ago, I’m patiently counting down the hours until I leave for a week of much needed R&R in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It’s only about 714 hours until our trip… if you must know.

When I vacation I’m more of a “relaxer” than a planner. I don’t set alarms, I don’t make any decisions more than a day or so in advance and I generally just go with it. This year though, I do have one goal: I want to finally read a book for pleasure.

Before you go proclaiming what a shallow person I am for “finally” reading a book for fun, let me just say I used to pleasure-read all the time in high school and during my first year or two of college.

Then I got to grad school. Then I read so many academic journal articles and textbooks that I forgot there could even be enjoyment in the activity. Then I developed a permanent lazy eye.

All right, the last part was a joke – but I think you get the point.

So now I’m ready to get back on the proverbial saddle, but the only problem is that I don’t know where to start. I know what I used to enjoy (mainly the thriller/horror genre), but I’ve grown up a good deal since then. Not to say I wouldn’t still enjoy a cheesy Stephen King novel, but I think I could get into a much wider variety of story at this point.

I’ve heard I may enjoy Dan Brown (“The Da Vinci Code”), so according to Amazon.com’s suggestions, that means I’ll also like Michael Crichton and about 100 books on Freemasons and the end of the world. Eh...

It looks like I need to hit the Interweb hard to find something that piques my interest… but that’s a lot of work. I would much rather get suggestions from you, the lovely reader/friend.

So… what do you got for me? Any help would be appreciated. Hugs and kisses; happy July.