Reading the wrong book on a holiday

It's a very powerful book, and so sad.

The film is also very very good.

Before the advent of kindles, I used to use nearly all my luggage allowance for books. The dismay when I realised half of them were unreadable was intense. I ran out of reading material in Vietnam once and a lovely American lady gave me 3 paperbacks, all of which were graphic sex stories disguised as true romance 😱😱😱

I read Kevin on a holiday too!

I distinctly remember reading The Go Between on a beach in Rhode Island and gasping very loudly but it didn't ruin the day, just made me sad.

I , however, STRONGLY advise against taking David Peace's Munichs on a holiday where a plane is involved. Brilliant book. Not for a plane.

I dare say most of the women who read it would have responded the same!

One summer I took The Nickel Boys and Shuggie Bain!

I once had to do some reading for work and without really looking took the next on the list with me to Germany when meeting my best friend’s family. It turned out to be great detail about the crimes against humanity committed during the Holocaust. Felt a bit pointed to be reading that during a cosy evening in.

I use a kindle and make sure I’ve got a whole selection downloaded before I go. A kindle is a game change for holidays.

Although some of the worst books I’ve read has been when I’ve looked on kindle unlimited for murder mysteries set in the place I’m going to.

we go in UK so i tend to take a selection such as a chic lit, thriller, crime, biography of someone not usually famous more someone has done something worth while, nice animal story ie rescued pet etc, then something like a book written by someone ie about an ambulance paramedic etc their story, nice selection

Yes. I was about 11 and voraciously reading Jean Plaidy historical fiction. My parents just let me get on with it, which was generally fine, but I found the burnings and torture descriptions in ‘The sixth wife’ a bit too much. They weren’t graphic but I do remember needing some different reading afterwards.

Heaven forbid people should just enjoy reading popular fiction they enjoy, on their own holiday.

Honestly, judging other people’s book choices isn’t a good look.

You don’t need a Kindle - just get another Kobo! I have a Kindle but Kobos are great. Don’t risk finding yourself overseas with a dozen paperbacks only to find none of them seem to ‘work’. The prospect is too awful to contemplate.

I do this too!

like the OP I ruined a nice holiday by reading A fine balance. The most depressing book I’ve ever read.

DH doesn’t understand it at all, how you bass be so affected by a book but he was reading Alec Ferguson biography or something.

My tip is to take something lighthearted like a PG Wodehouse alongside.

The Lovely Bones ruined about four days of my French gite holiday. I couldn’t stop reading it and felt so sad.

Oh gosh this!

I remember exclaiming “she just died!” at a packed pool next to our apartment in the Cote D’Azur

I usually load my kindle up, and get through multiple books, on a cruise, so if I’m not enjoying one, I just switch to another.

I’m away at the moment with Douglas Stuart’s John of John, it’s brilliantly written but I’m going to switch to something else as it’s not right for the trip I don’t think. Funnily enough I’ve had several holidays on Harris & Lewis.

This thread is very funny.

I’m off on holiday in September and have started to think about which books I’ll take, it’s a very important decision!

Not ‘on holiday’ as such, but I was spending Christmas day alone a few years ago and eagerly cracked open Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth. When my relatives phoned me late that evening I could barely speak for misery and tears …

This thread has reminded me of the wonderful Graham Norton episode where he is interviewing Jamie Dornan about Fifty Shades of Grey. They do an audience poll to see how many women have read it and how many men. One man admits to it...

When asked 'Did you enjoy it' he responds 'No - it was shite'. He's a lovely Irishman and I read an interview later on where he said he was on holiday with his girlfriend and had run out of things to read, so he read this, because she had taken it with her.

In the Caribbean not long ago, most guests at the hotel were American and had seemingly lugged hardbacks on holiday with them…I got to peruse their titles and noticed several books with titles like ‘A Court of Frost and Breeches, A Court of Dragons and Smouldering Looks’ or similar wankery.

I could only guess at the utter guff within 😂

I can't remember the exact book/s but sure I've done it in the past.

I've certainly read books at the wrong time generally, and I have an unfortunate determination always to read things to the end. I'll never forget reading Tom Wolfe's 'Bonfire of the Vanities' , about a man's life unravelling, during a really stressful time and it was not the right read. Ditto during Covid reading a book imagining a collapsing Britain running out of water - not the right moment!

I did swerve it with a long weekend away last year where I started reading a very black comedy book about a woman with a sexual crush on aeroplanes (Sky Daddy by Kate Folk) a day or two before I left, and realised I wasn't in the mood for that on a break at all, so I stopped after one chapter and read it later.

I read PS I love you when I was on my first holiday with my (now) husband. I struggled to be cheerful some days, he must have thought what have I done going on holiday with this sad girl 🤣

I’m the same @BauhausOfEliott - I take far too many books on holiday in case I don’t like some. I always take something I know I’ll like re-reading too, generally Terry Pratchett or John Le Carrè.
I did have a kobo reader which was great as you could borrow library books on it, but I stood on it and broke it 😬 I know everyone will say get a kindle, but I can’t stand Amazon.

This is one of the reasons I bought a Kindle. Being on holiday with the ‘wrong’ books is my worst nightmare. I don’t mind a harrowing read on holiday at all, but I have to be in the right mood for every book I read. I used to take about a dozen paperbacks with me, which wasn’t good for my baggage weight allowance 😳

The worst was reading Zorba the Greek while in Crete. An obvious choice you might think reading the blurb on the back:

This moving fable sees a young Greek writer set out to Crete to claim a small inheritance. But when he arrives, he meets Alexis Zorba, a middle-aged Greek man with a zest for life. Zorba has had a family and many lovers, has fought in the Balkan wars, has lived and loved - he is a simple but deep man who lives every moment fully and without shame. As their friendship develops, he is gradually won over, transformed and inspired along with the reader.

Sounds great, perfect holiday reading. But no, this book is possibly the most misogynistic book I've ever read and includes at its climax the stoning of the love interest of the main character. I was reduced to reading my son's Percy Jackson and a graphic novel of the Odyssey.