What books are you all taking on holiday?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I've got:

A history of the Tower of London
The Historian (to re-read)
A History Of The World In 100 Objects
Some Poe short stories
A Wilkie Collins
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (re-read)
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

Hopefully one a day will be enough!

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys(reread)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (never read it)
The Little White Horse - Elizabeth Goudge
The Levelling Sea - Phillip Marsden
Everything Flows - Vasily Grozman
The Island - Victoria Hislop

Found another book to add to my list "The girls", about co-joined twins. Think is fiction rather than factual.

Whatiswitnit - I loved The Island, great story.

^ I hated The Girls! Is fiction yes.

Nice post drnooo

quirrelquarrel, what was wrong with "The Girls" ? Only cost me 10p from the box outside the charity shop, so no great lose. Have to find a replacement now.

bows Thank you quirrelquarrel!

The Island is crappy trash of the highest order, testimony that publisher must have had a debt to Ian Hislop, the author's husband. If OP likes it, I'll eat this computer.

I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and really enjoying it. Surprisingly, since I've never read about magic and stuff, totally missing the Harry Potter craze. Well-written in a way that is very unusual with women authors (unfortunately) and very satisfying on the details, as it should, with its 1,000-page bulk

I have so far read:
The Dervish House - Ian Mc Donald
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (Did you read this in the end, Remus?
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Mongoliad - Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear et al.

To read on my Kindle:
The Drawing Of The Three - Stephen King
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M Pirsig
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
So Much For That - Lionel Shriver
Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre (Remus - This might tickle your fancy for historical non-fiction)

Just back from holiday and I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which I really enjoyed.

'The Girls' is dreadful. You were robbed! :)

Cote - read 'A Clockwork Orange' several years ago - tis bloomin' brilliant. It took me years to steel myself to read it but then I devoured it in an evening iirc.

I re-read 'The Virgin Suicides' last week - love it. You'll probably hate it Cote, and think it's superficial.

I really like 'The Drawing Of The Three' because of seeing Roland in 'our' world. Mmmmmmmm Roland...

I gave up on Jonathon Strange - too much like hard and very boring work.

Will look into Operation Mincemeat - ta.

Well, I read and really enjoyed Middlesex, so I have nothing but respect for the author of Virgin Suicides. And I had watched the film several years ago and found it pleasantly moody and worthwhile. I think I will be OK with the book

A Clockwork Orange was hard going in the beginning. I didn't understand most of what he was talking about and despaired for a while when I thought all those strange words could be some UK slang from when the book was written. I ended up really enjoying it, though and now feel like using the word "horrorshow" all the time

You were right "The Girls" is crap, I have read about 40 pages and want to like it as it should be good, going by the back cover. But, I really don't care about them, what happened etc. I even read a few pages near the back, nope still don't care !!!! In the bag for the charity shop now.

I'm going away twice at the end of the month (brief trip to Norfolk to take kids to see dp's mother, a week in Ilkley where my mum lives). I'll probably read very little when I'm away, but two books I've enjoyed recently, not promising anyone else will

Sofka Zinovieff, The House on Paradise Street - caught little bits on Radio 4, currently only £1.09 on Kindle until the end of the month, set in Greece in 2008 and with a backstory of WWII/postwar Greece. Maud's Greek husband has died suddenly and she gets in touch with his communist mum Antigone who left him behind as a young child and went to live in the USSR. Antigone comes home and the novel is taken up with family history from her viewpoint.

Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Joyce - This is a bit of an improbable Booker contender, it's not really that highbrow but it's a good example of well written and moving commercial fiction. Well, I cried over it.

If you want a doorstep novel, Vasily Grossman's novel of WWII in the Soviet Union, Life and Fate, is brilliant, not such easy reading and very grim and depressing in places. It's available on Kindle at fluctuating prices or as a hefty paperback.

Just passed through heathrow airport on my hols I picked up an interesting looking novel called, My Gun was as tall as me, by Toni Davidson, all about child soldiers. It's not the kind of subject matter that would normally appeal to me, but the first page is beautifully written, like poetry.

Has anyone here read Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin? It's Kindle deal of the day on amazon.fr.

I've given up on it three times, Cote. I have become increasingly bored by Margaret Atwood tbh.

Thanks. I didn't get it.

A few days into my holiday. Is it sad that I had to come online just to follow this thread?

So far, read (all non-fiction):

Inventing the Victorians, Matthew Sweet (a bit of a disappointment. If you're interested in the Victorians, I think A N Wilson's book is better).

Once More with Feeling, Victorian Coran and Charlie Skelton. An unusual take on porn (the authors set out to make their own porn film). Really humanizes the actors involved. Surprisingly tender. Good to get away from the victim narrative, but I was left feeling they soft-soaped the whole thing to some extent.

The Possessed, Elif Batuman. All about her various travels while doing a PhD in Russian literature. I like it for the travel aspect and her portrayal of the academic world, but I don't know anything about Russian literature so a lot of it is pretty much wasted on me.

That's it so far but it's only been five days....

How do you find time to do so much reading? Do you do nothing but lie in the sun all day? Are you going away for several weeks? Or are you speed readers?

We only go away for a week at a time, and lying in the sun all day every day would bore me to tears. I like exploring and sightseeing as well as lounging around in the sun. We are going to Italy this year and you can see Mount Vesuvius from the hotel. There is no way I am going there and not visiting Pompeii/Vesuvius/Herculaneum/Capri etc.

Whatiswitnit - thanks for the suggestions :) I read Staying On years ago, and A Fine Balance is one of my all-time favourite books. I know some people find it grim, and admittedly there are harrowing episodes, but I love the author's development of the characters, the subtleties of their relationships and the depth of involvement you feel in their fate as a reader.

Sea of Poppies gets great reviews on Amazon; I will definitely give it a try. I remember reading The Glass Palace by the same author and enjoying it, and I like a good sea-faring novel, like English Passengers and Sacred Hunger, so thanks for that.

Just back from holiday in fact, where I read:

Revelation - C J Sansom, the fourth Shardlake novel. An easy, absorbing read.

The Cruellest Month - Louise Penny, the 3rd Inspector Gamache novel. I don't like flying and need a good crime novel to make the journey pass quickly!

Bring up the Bodies .. absolutely brilliant. Can't wait for the last novel in the trilogy.

My Dear I Wanted to Tell You - Louisa Young. Half-way through and enjoying it. Much better than the off-puttingly chick-lit-type cover would suggest, and very reminiscent of Sue Gee, whose books I really like.

The holiday became busier than expected so the two books I didn't get to:

The Magician's Assistant - Ann Patchett

Q&A - Vikas Swarup. Both look excellent though

drnooo - The Adult sounds great. Will add that to the pile :)

highland - most interested in what you say about the Louisa Young book as I was instantly put off by the cover!!! It sounds like it should not be judged by its cover???!

And Louise Penny - I just came across her for the first time today as one of her books (can't remember which one) is on Kindle at a good price so I was interested in that.... may take a closer look there....

I like this thread. I go away this weekend and have soooooo many books I want to read now. Even have "holiday" folder on Kindle and it has ten in it so far

Hi AB

Yes, on the back of the book Tatler describes My Dear I Wanted to Tell You as "Birdsong for the new millennium", whereas The Times likens it in a roundabout way to One Day (which I didn't hugely enjoy)

I'd say the Tatler review is a lot closer to the mark.

Some of the scenes in the trenches, and descriptions of the injuries suffered as well as the brutal process of the early days of reconstructive surgery are very powerful. It's a million miles away from chick-lit, although the love between two of the main characters is beautifully conveyed.

The more I read, the more impressed I am .. I'd give it a go.

Louise Penny is quite different. I read the fifth book in the Inspector Gamache series first, as it was our book club choice. Really enjoyed it, so have gone back and started the series from the beginning. It's not gory, hard-edged crime .. it's more reminiscent of Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series, focused around a small town and referring to the family life of the main detective. Did leave me with a huge desire to visit Quebec and explore the history and culture there :)

Bunbaker, I'm in Ireland, so definitely not lying around in the sun! I see your point - on active holidays, there is less time for reading. I don't read that much during the day, but tend to go to bed quite early and read for a couple of hours before sleep. Not everyone's idea of a good time, but it is mine...

"but tend to go to bed quite early and read for a couple of hours before sleep. Not everyone's idea of a good time, but it is mine..."

Mine too

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry - any good about to start this?