By Bill Quain
Summer was traditionally the perfect time to release blockbusters, both in books and movies. Back in the day, there were no laptops, tablets, phones, or other devices that could give you instant access to any form of entertainment you wanted. Everyone wanted to read the most recent bestseller by their favorite author.
The first blockbuster book I remember seeing on the beach was “The Godfather,” by Mario Puzo. Everyone was reading it. You didn’t buy it online. You had to actually go to a bookstore. There you would find a table full of bestselling books, right up front.
If you wanted to read a bestseller while it was still fresh off the press, you had to buy the hardcover version. No paperbacks for the first season! Then you had to find the place and the time to read that book. You didn’t just pick up your phone when you had a few minutes here or there and log onto your Audible app. And there were certainly no Kindles around in those days. You had to take a real book to a place where you could sit down and enjoy it.
The Beach – The Perfect Reading Spot
How did you get in a nice long reading stretch? Simple! You took the book to the beach! There were a lot of essentials. You had to have a comfortable beach chair and the right kind of sunglasses. (I remember how excited my wife and sisters were when sunglasses with “readers” built-in came on the market.) A beach umbrella is always nice, or at least a big floppy hat to shade your eyes.
I can remember my father on the beach, legs crossed, holding a big, fat book in his lap. Of course, my dad was never reading the current bestselling book. He had his old favorites. Other members of the family had their own preferred book genres. For some, it was a classic “beach read”, often a light-hearted romance set in a coastal town. For others, it was a mystery or thriller. Remember “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown in 2003? Everyone on the beach was reading that one! The younger members of our family had the Harry Potter books, of course, but my daughters and their cousins also loved “The Babysitters Club” books. I can see my daughters now, lying on a beach towel, propped up on their elbows, reading the book page-by-page.
And Don’t Forget the Front Porch!
As the sun began to set, hundreds of people would fold up their chairs or towels, pack up their books, and head back to the house for a shower. I remember friends and family members who would grab a quick 15 or 20 minutes of reading on the front porch, either waiting for the shower or just after. There was usually a tall drink next to them. Interestingly, most of them looked like they had been picked up from the beach and carried bodily to another chair. No one looked up from their book. No one talked. Those summer books were that good! In fact, my wife would measure how good a vacation was by the number of books she had read during the vacation.
Well, Have You Read It Yet?
When the latest bestseller hit the market, that’s the question everyone asked. It’s how conversations began. The next question was always “How far along are you in the book? Did you get to the part where …” The person asking the question knew that there was a spot in that book that would rock the world of the reader. But they had to be careful not to give too much away!
“Jaws” — The Book and Movie Nightmare
I have dim memories of reading the book “Jaws” while living in Sea Isle in the mid-70s. I can’t remember if it was the actual book or some sort of magazine series. I do remember that I didn’t do much swimming that summer.
I also remember watching the movie not long after I finished reading “Jaws”. Reading the book first gave me advance warning of a couple scenes that I didn’t want to see in the movie. There was a scene where a diver goes under a boat to look at a giant hole the shark had apparently bitten on the bottom of the boat. While the diver was exploring, a man’s head came rolling out. I closed my eyes just before the scene, but my date, who was sitting on my right, grabbed my arm and screamed. That was bad enough, but the stranger sitting next to me – a very large man – grabbed my left arm and screamed at the same time! I thought Jaws had me! My scream came a full second after everyone else in the movie theater. It caused quite a scene.
What Was Your Best Summer Read?
I know you have a favorite summer blockbuster book. Let’s hear about it! What memories does it bring back? What else happened that summer that seals your memory? What’s your record for the number of books read in the summer?
You know the routine by now. Shoot me an email to bill@quain.com. As I say each week, I’ll see ya in the papers!
Bill is a Professor in Stockton University’s Hospitality Management Program. He is the author of 27 books, and a highly-respected speaker. Even though he is almost totally blind, Bill is a long-distance runner and runs the Ocean City Half Marathon each year. He lives in Ocean City with his wife Jeanne, and his Guide Dog Trudy. Visit www.billquain.com or email him at bill@quain.com.
