The call to stock up on "beach reads" begins to show up at bookstores and online right about March or so, or just around the time we begin thinking we wouldn't mind taking a few days at the ocean in July or August.
Soon novels and memoirs arrive bearing the "beach reads" label, and bingo: You've got your sand-based stories lined up for the summer.
But the Santa Monica Public Library puts a different sandy spin on the notion of the beach and books each year when it pops by the Annenberg Community Beach House.
Literally pops by, as in a pop-up, as in a daylong dally at the historic Santa Monica pool and house.
That daylong dally is set for Friday, July 8, from 10 in the morning through 3 o'clock, but don't look for the paperbacks and magazines that are often described as the perfect page-throughs for an afternoon spent near the ocean.
Rather, the library will build a day around "seaside reading, family friendly outdoor activities and special surprises." The written word is still one of the strongest sunbeams of the sunny day out near the waves, but the event is less about quietly reading on your own.
Fun is to be had, of a lit-sweet nature, and books and the beach are the joyful jump-off point.
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If you're looking for some grown-up pool time at the Annenberg, return later that night, on the 8th, for the Sunset Swim. It's just for adults, so drop your kids off at your parents' abode and spent an hour or two noshing on gratis fruit bars and s'mores while hanging out at a pool, at the beach, on a pretty Friday night.
