So I have got nine books

[janeite]

Nine books for a two week holiday - do you think I am likely to cope, or will I be chewing my own arm in frustration after day six?

I have got:
The Moonstone
The Woman In White
Let The Right One In (Swedish vampire thing)
Netherland
Something about a rat that I found in a charity shop - can't remember what it is
Tom Bedlam
Something about WW1 - forgotten what it is
A Georgette Heyer
Animal Farm (re-read)

[mumblechum]

Oooh I love Wilkie Collins. Hope you go somewhere foggy and gloomy to read those ones (kidding).

[BecauseImWorthIt]

How are you travelling out/home? For me, that's the killer. If you're flying that's a book per flight, which would leave you only 7. And Animal Farm is only a slim book, so that will be devoured all too quickly.

Personally I would look to add a couple more.

Or is your DH/DP taking any books that you could snaffle?

I made this mistake one year, and was therefore delighted to discover a stash of books in the villa, left by previous visitors. However, delight soon turned to dismay when I realise they were all books about poor, down trodden women from Liverpool in WW2. It was still better than having nothing to read though!

[YouLukaAmazing]

Message withdrawn

[janeite]

Flying.

That's the situation I was in last year and ended up reading some real tripe (hands up Kate Mosse).

Dd1 is taking a Sophie Kinsella and Bridget Jones, so I may be reduced to those as well.

Oh I've remembered another one too - a history of food and cooking, which is pretty hefty.

[mumblechum]

Yes, Kate Mosse is truly tripe. Because I'd heard her on Radio 4 I'd assumed she was q. highbrow.

Having just plodded through Labyrinth, well. Oh dear.

[SobriquetDuJour]

BIWI, what is this 'book per flight' you speak of?

Can't remember the last flight that wasn't punctuated with Muummy..Muuuuuuuum..I need a wee...Mum he hit me.....blah blah, you get the picture

I'm guessing you have older dcs Janeite? Am at your pile to read

[BecauseImWorthIt]

At least Kate Mosse can write long, grammatically complex sentences - not like the bloody books I was reduced to reading! Honestly it made me wonder how those writers ever got contracts.

Flying awkward because although you may need more books it adds to your weight. But I would definitely add a couple more if you can.

[janeite]

Yes they are older and have their own books to read so I can happily ignore them on the flight!

[Terpsichore]

Ooh, 'The Woman in White' is fab. I once took it on a family holiday when I was about 13, and had finished it by the time we got to our destination....er, about 3 hours' drive away (my parents were doing the driving, obviously!). I felt like my eyes were going to fall out of my head with all that 'extreme reading', but I just HAD to find out what happened.

These days we never go away without about 20 books for a 2-week holiday. Luckily I managed to marry another insane dedicated reader.

[janeite]

Am looking forward to THWIW now!

Lucky you, being able to read in the car - it makes me sick just looking at the cover.

[janeite]

Sorry - stray H there! The Woman in White.

[whosturnisit]

I remember the holidays before children. I would reckon on a book a day. This would allow for one or two failures. Then when the DCs were small it was 1 book per week. Now they are 11 and 13 and I have a pile of 7 books for 2 weeks. It's a short flight and they are all favourite authors.

DS2 is also a big reader so I need to find enough books to keep him happy for 2 weeks.

I've seldom been anywhere where there wasn't a bookshelf of "donated " books but I'd hate to rely on it.

[Terpsichore]

janeite, unfortunately I have to read - it's a long-standing compulsion . Never go anywhere without a book and get very anxious if for some reason I can't lay hands on one!

But yes, TWIW is marvellous. As is 'The Moonstone'.

OP, another book I've been thinking about re-reading is Rose Tremain's 'The Way I Found Her'. I loved it - it's narrated by a 13-year-old boy who lives with his mother in Paris and embarks on an 'adventure' trying to find one of their friends who's disappeared. I think it tends to divide opinion (the hero is an unusually mature-sounding 13-year old), but I would recommend it highly...

[Terpsichore]

Ooops, sorry janeite, you are the OP!

[BecauseImWorthIt]

I have to confess that I quite enjoyed Labyrinthe, and on the strength of that I bought Sepulchre, which was a total, total, pile of shite. I got quite cross!

[Terpsichore]

janeite, have you seen the film of 'Let the Right One In'? Very creepy and beautifully done. I won't give anything away but I'd be interested to hear what the book's like.

[janeite]

I haven't seen the film, no. I don't 'do' horror films and generally only read Stephen King in the horror genre but dp really wanted this, so I thought I'd give it a go too.

Have read most of Rose Tremain's but don't remember that one - will look out for it.

[Terpsichore]

The film's incredibly low-key and non-bloody, apart from a couple of memorable scenes, which makes it very effective. But I suspect the Scandinavians do this sort of thing much more tastefully!

[Quattrocento]

Why not take a massive must-read-before-I-die kind of book so that it's impossible to run out of books. Like War and Peace or Anna Karenina.

Too much mist and gloom in your selection - you've got a blazing fireside reading list. Your WW1 book will be full of mud and death, animal farm isn't cheery, Wilkie Collins is marvellous but shouldn't be read in daylight ....

[janeite]

Tried and failed with both of those before.

Might take Sense And Sensibility to lighten things up a bit!

I think the rat thing is supposed to be quite funny and the Heyer will be lovely and light.

[EachPeachPearMum]

"Something about a rat that I found in a charity shop"... now did you find the book or the rat in the shop? (made me laugh anyway!)

BIWI- I like you're thinking! Pre-dc I would have taken 11 or 12 for a week... now though... I managed 1 and a quarter last holiday (was for 2 weeks too ) Good to know once they're older I'll get to read again.

Janeite- did you read the scrabble book yet? I read that n holiday...

[janeite]

Not yet - but am just about to go and play against dp. Beat him last night and hope to do so again!

[TwoIfBySea]

I haven't seen the film but I read Let The Right One In recently and you'll be up all night wanting to finish it, really gripping and there is one part that is truly nightmare scary which I believe is not in the film. Really good book.

[cathcat]

I am very impressed that you can read The Woman in White so quickly...I read it last winter and it took me about 6 weeks. 500 pages of dense type! I did enjoy it though.

I agree that Labyrinth was a pile of rubbish.
Have you read David Mitchell? Cloud Atlas is quite long.

[jkklpu]

I can't wait for 10 years hence when I will be able to read books on holiday again. Cathcat - sorry I HATED Cloud Atlas: full of repeated grammatical mistakes and then Sloosha's bloody crossing. Like the sound of Janeite's list, though.