,

Fiction prominently featuring a seaside (or island) setting -- though not necessarily what's known as "beach reads."

(Nor books dealing with pirates or seafaring folk or set far out on the ocean, e.g., during a cruise or sea voyage, nor below the surface of the ocean, please. There are several other lists for all those types of books already.)

1

by
3.85 avg rating — 543,906 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.25 avg rating — 729,733 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
3.68 avg rating — 333,144 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.88 avg rating — 350,999 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,223,510 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
3.81 avg rating — 1,325,352 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.33 avg rating — 1,034,346 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
4.19 avg rating — 815,745 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
3.59 avg rating — 300,273 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
3.88 avg rating — 153,118 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.15 avg rating — 784,323 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.18 avg rating — 3,465,234 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
4.09 avg rating — 510,417 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
3.86 avg rating — 194,965 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
3.88 avg rating — 55,748 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.06 avg rating — 155,842 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
3.91 avg rating — 110,207 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.98 avg rating — 30,541 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
3.81 avg rating — 216,909 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.57 avg rating — 275,099 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
4.28 avg rating — 195,229 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.27 avg rating — 1,635,449 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
4.26 avg rating — 217,639 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
4.03 avg rating — 93,067 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.98 avg rating — 89,412 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,425,655 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.14 avg rating — 56,515 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
4.04 avg rating — 8,360 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.99 avg rating — 99,752 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
3.99 avg rating — 24,545 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
4.44 avg rating — 88 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
3.86 avg rating — 274,240 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
3.82 avg rating — 14,873 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 56,938 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
3.86 avg rating — 381,974 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.94 avg rating — 180,180 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.85 avg rating — 101 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.85 avg rating — 12,601 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
4.10 avg rating — 17,984 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
4.12 avg rating — 623 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.55 avg rating — 35,400 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.69 avg rating — 228,771 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
3.59 avg rating — 107,974 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.90 avg rating — 84,789 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.85 avg rating — 53,177 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.79 avg rating — 68,278 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
4.14 avg rating — 228,720 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.73 avg rating — 136,226 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.95 avg rating — 119,496 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
3.87 avg rating — 51,022 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.14 avg rating — 59,306 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
3.90 avg rating — 15,354 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
3.94 avg rating — 1,760,618 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
4.14 avg rating — 6,183 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
4.30 avg rating — 27,084 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
4.04 avg rating — 482,128 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.85 avg rating — 7,809 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
3.83 avg rating — 53,713 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
4.02 avg rating — 32,859 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
4.05 avg rating — 64,380 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
4.12 avg rating — 18,954 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
3.86 avg rating — 19,436 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
3.82 avg rating — 648 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,799 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
3.96 avg rating — 15,474 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
4.19 avg rating — 55,121 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.74 avg rating — 74,559 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.83 avg rating — 74,937 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
4.12 avg rating — 6,158 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
4.33 avg rating — 1,121,769 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
4.08 avg rating — 36,103 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
3.68 avg rating — 24,182 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
4.20 avg rating — 141,101 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
3.76 avg rating — 138,649 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.99 avg rating — 137,736 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
4.27 avg rating — 26 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
3.83 avg rating — 1,203,915 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
4.19 avg rating — 75,722 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.51 avg rating — 37,194 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
3.69 avg rating — 36,155 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
3.81 avg rating — 26,680 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
4.02 avg rating — 10,886 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
4.22 avg rating — 30,643 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
4.16 avg rating — 64,165 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.19 avg rating — 42 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.26 avg rating — 494 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
4.12 avg rating — 19,718 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
4.16 avg rating — 2,117,645 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
3.81 avg rating — 29,948 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
3.92 avg rating — 17,584 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
4.02 avg rating — 84,231 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
4.11 avg rating — 70,140 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
3.92 avg rating — 1,362,409 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
3.38 avg rating — 9,904 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
3.90 avg rating — 55,916 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
4.05 avg rating — 260,482 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
3.94 avg rating — 59,234 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
4.12 avg rating — 974 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.13 avg rating — 36,751 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
3.78 avg rating — 228,789 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
740 books · 562 voters · list created November 10th, 2010 by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (votes) .
87 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) 546 books
365 friends
Bettie 15681 books
19 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3388 books
851 friends
Thom 6022 books
293 friends
♥Xeni♥ 4189 books
71 friends
Rose 4528 books
15 friends
Agnieszka 4543 books
141 friends
ღ Carol jinx~☆~☔ʚϊɞ 4181 books
464 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-16 of 16 (16 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Josie (new)

Josie Crimp Hey, what a great theme for a list! Thanks for setting this up :-)


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) You're welcome, and thank you in turn! :)


message 3: by Jim (new)

Jim No books from Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series?? No Horatio Hornblower??


message 4: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Jul 11, 2012 07:29AM) (new)

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Jim wrote: "No books from Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series?? No Horatio Hornblower??"

No, because they're -- for the most part -- not set on the beach/shore but out at sea (cf. list description).

As a matter of fact, I've noticed that a few books not covered by the list description have started to creep in already; I'll probably be going through the list to delete them shortly.

That said, if you can think of a Hornblower or Aubrey/Maturin book that has a predominant "seaside-but-not-out-on-the-ocean" setting, by all means do add it.


message 5: by Jim (new)

Jim Themis-Athena wrote:
No, because they're -- for the most part -- not set on the beach/shore but out at sea (cf. list descrip..."


Good point.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) OK -- I think I caught the more obvious examples of those books that don't match the list description. If someone sees one I seem to have missed, though, I'd be grateful for a hint (including a brief indication why it shouldn't be here). Thanks in advance!


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Voyage of the Dawn Treader? A lot of it is at sea; and a lot of it is on islands. Stay or go?


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Susanna wrote: "Voyage of the Dawn Treader? A lot of it is at sea; and a lot of it is on islands. Stay or go?"

I thought a long time about that one but eventually decided to leave it, as the island settings are within the intended list parameters. It's definitely a borderline candidate, though ...


message 9: by Grover (new)

Grover This is the siren of list. I have read many books in this genre and have discovered new authors I am eager to become satiety.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Grover wrote: "This is the siren of list. I have read many books in this genre and have discovered new authors I am eager to become satiety."

Thank you! :)

New additions are always welcome.


message 11: by Adrienne (last edited Jul 14, 2012 11:44PM) (new)

Adrienne And the Sea Will Tell/ Vincent Bugliosi


message 12: by Adrienne (new)

Adrienne Life of Pi/Yann Martel


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Adrienne: Everybody can add books to this list; just click on the tab up top next to "all votes."

And the Sea Will Tell is, as far as I know, nonfiction (this is a list for fiction only), and Life of Pi is among the books I recently deleted, because too much of it is set out on the ocean, not on land.

But I do appreciate your making suggestions!


message 14: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Apr 27, 2013 12:13PM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) I don't remember Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (no. 27) to be a beach setting or to be on an island. I seem to remember it was set on the Bodmin Moor... But it's a long time ago since I read the book.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) True. Removed.


message 16: by Wayne (new)

Wayne Check out: DaysTune’s Summer Reading List For The Beach In 2016 (With Goodreads Reviews) https://t.co/aMjZRKLxwW


back to top