Books on the beach

I went to the beach today and took a lovely walk, glancing back and forth between the ocean and the people. As always, I was book nosy, and did my best to see what everyone was reading. Here's my report ...

• 3 Nelson DeMilles ... not surprising, since this is Long Island and he's our most famous author. One was a library copy


• 2 James Pattersons ... ALEX CROSS and what looked like a large-type edition of ALONG CAME A SPIDER


• THE HELP, hardcover


• Two girls were sitting side-by-side reading separate copies of the new Stephanie Meyer book


• A Charlaine Harris paperback


• A man after my own heart was reading Richard Russo's EMPIRE FALLS in trade paperback (my favorite book, fyi)


• Jodi Picoult's VANISHING ACTS


• Emily Giffin (pink cover)


• Matthew Pearl's THE DANTE CLUB


• Only saw two e-readers, which looked like Kindles. It was one couple and they each had their own. No idea what they were reading. Saw NO iPads.


Of course, most of the books were paperback and I couldn't see the covers, so the report's pretty skewed. Note, too, that there were at least as many magazines and newspapers as there were books. And oh, I did see one copy of THE OTHER LIFE by Ellen Meister. My husband was reading it ... in manuscript form.


Have a happy Father's Day ...