What to Read at the Beach, or: Get Your Red-Hot Summer Trash Right Here!

This summer has witnessed the reignition of the debate about pulpy reading, with much of the usual attendant hair-pulling and garment-rending. Should you do it? Should you feel guilty about doing it? Is it bad for you? And, oh goodness, once you open your mind to the corrupting tendrils of popular fiction, can your good-breeding and forthright character hope to survive for long?

Our preferred answers, in order: Yes. No. No. And probably not, which you should embrace.