Bookworms and Beach Bums Keep This Ocean City Hot Spot Brimming

The skies above Ocean City, so gloriously blue in the morning, started to darken a little before noon. Toward the west, angry pitchforks of lightning crackled to the ground. Thunder rumbled down the boardwalk. Soon, heavy drops of rain began falling, scattering people from the beach, ending miniature golf games in mid-stroke, driving all but the hardiest anglers from the pier.

It was time to go to the library.

"I can usually gauge what kind of day I'm going to have by the weather," Joe Colantuoni told me. He's the assistant branch manager of the Worcester County Library's Ocean City branch.

You might have thought, as I did, that a library at the beach would be about as busy as a corset shop at a nudist colony, but it turns out Ocean City's library hums every day, shine or rain. When I was there last week, one large function room was packed to capacity with families waiting for a performance by the Bubble Lady. When she had blown her last bubble, kids fanned out in search of books and DVDs.

"We have everything a big-city library has," Joe said of the branch at 100th Street and Coastal Highway. The airy, light-filled building opened in March 2008.

There's undoubtedly a different vibe to this beach library. For starters, there's precious little shushing going on. You're allowed to sip your drinks, and discreet cellphone conversations are okay.

"You do have to wear shoes," Joe pointed out. "You do have to wear a shirt."

This sometimes takes a while to sink in. The library is only a block from the beach, after all.

What is the quintessential beach reading for tourists?

"They want to chill out," said Cher Grazier, assistant branch manager. "They don't want something too heavy."

I associate my beach reading with narrative nonfiction of the true-crime variety. During my week at the beach earlier this month, I tore through "Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art" and "War of Words: A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder." My most perfect summer vacation was a few years back, when I read several books about cannibalism among desperate sailors on doomed sailing ships. It certainly gave me something to think about as I kayaked with my wife.

The O.C. librarians will issue a library card to anyone with an ID, but if that's too much commitment, there's a case full of "honor" books: paperbacks you don't even need a card to check out. The library installed additional computers so people could surf the Web, not the waves. And there are terminals available in 10-minute increments for tourists who need to do a quick check of the old e-mail.