The quintessential beach read

The Beach Book is a collection of short stories from Melcher Media. But this is no ordinary beach read - it's waterproof, impervious to UV rays, greaseproof and stain-resistant. It's the latest in a series dubbed DuraBooks which use plastic resins rather than wood pulp or cotton fibers to make pages. The book is sewn together in a patented process that involves special thread and glue.

In addition to beachcombers, the company sees a market for bathtub readers, like myself, who they claim "often won't take a good book in with them for fear of destroying it." (I've never suffered from this particular form of anxiety however.)

The 12-person company has been printing the books for four years and have half a million in print already. (But some of the titles seem to need a washing themselves: Aqua Erotica and Wet: More Aqua Erotica are two of the 11 titles offered in this new format. No wonder they are made with the bathtub in mind - you have to cater to your market after all!)

The company is eager to expand their titles to more mainstream tastes, like manuals, field guides, cookbooks (great idea - I've splattered many a cookbook page!) and maps.