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People have different definitions of a "beach reading". For some people, the time that they spent relaxing on the beach is a perfect time to pick up some serious non-fiction (historical, philosophical etc.) text and take all the time in the world reflecting on the ideas in the book. Seriously, how often in your normal life do you have time and inclination to internalize the ideas of Nizshe or Sartre?

However, for most of us, the "beach book" is a synonym to the light reading. Again, it would be a matter of personal preferences. For example, people who do not normally read fantasy would not carry "Harry Potter " books, traveling to some hot Caribbean destination. On the other hand, how many men on the beach would be reading Nora Roberts?

For me, "best book to read on the beach" would be simply what it is a good book in any of the genres that I usually read good fiction, thriller, fantasy or romance, non-standard political or business book; fascinating memoirs.

It is very difficult to make a short list of my favorites in different genres, but here they are, in no particular order:

Thrillers:
Lee Child first books in Jack Reacher series. The order is not really important, but the level of suspension in first books is so high, that you may want to skip your all-inclusive dinner for those. Both my husband and I were hooked on "Killing floor" , "Die trying" and "Tripwire".

Arturo Perez-Reverte. I like most of his books, but my favorites are "the Club Dumas", "The Flanders Panel", and "The Queen of the South"

Mysteries by Boris Akunin (very popular modern Russian author). Some literary games and language nuances are lost in English translations, but the suspension is still there.

Romance
Nobody can beat Nora Roberts for the light entertainment reading. Pick any book by her name, and if men could not be found near Nora Roberts book, they would read the thrillers by J.D. Robb, the name that she uses to write futuristic thrillers. I personally prefer her magic series, like "Keys trilogy" or "The circle".

For nice "chick lit" break my pick would be almost any book by Sophie Kinsella ("Can you keep the secret?" being the favorite) or by Marian Keyes ("Sushi for beginners"). And, if you still haven's read "The devil wears Prada" by Lauren Weisberger, what are you waiting for?

Fantasy
Any book by Dave Duncan would keep you engrossed and entertained for a long time. My favorite series are "The King Blades" and "Children of Chaos". The worlds there are original, the characters are unique and strong, the plot twists are unexpected. Guaranteed, you'll get the sun burn simply because you'll be getting lost in these worlds and forget about the sunscreen.

I read a lot of fantasy, so my list here could be very long, but I'll pick just one more name: Sergej Lukjyanenko, "Night Watch", "Day Watch" and "Twilight Watch" series. Again, as a Russian author, he is not getting much of promotion, despite the North American commercial success of the movies, based on those books.

A couple of business books for those weird people who read them even on the beach:

N. Taleb "Fooled by randomness"
R. Martin "Responsibility virus"
P. Rosenzweig "The halo effect"

I admit, despite my business background (or because of it) I read only non-orthodox business books. These three are just an example.

Enjoy!

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