How do you choose books to take on holiday ?

[tobee]

Just meant to be a fun question, really? Do you take ones of a similar ilk? Or all kinds to fit your possible mood? Or something set where you are going, perhaps? I'm off on holiday next week and won't have Internet access so can't easily download kindle/iBooks if I choose badly.

I usually download the free kindle samples and read the first few pages before I buy it. I can usually tell if I'm going to get into it or not from that.

I go round the local charity shops with a tenner and spend a morning picking out likely looking books, reading the blurbs and choosing as many as I can get for my £10. I supplement these with books I've been meaning to read all year that are lying around the house. I don't know how I'm going to read them all this year as we're only going away for a week!

I definitely like to choose my holiday reads based on where they are set. There is nothing more interesting than reading a good book where you are glued to the page and you look up and there is the place it is set in all around you... it all started with Donna Leon in Venice and then Bangkok Tattoo when I went to Bangkok and the rest is history!

i fill up my ereader!!! (and the spare one just in case)

I chose books too which have links to where I am going to as well. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier when I went to Cornwall for example.

I tend to go for 'holiday reads' to get me in the spirit!

Weirdly, when I was on holiday in Madeira, I was reading Kenneth Williams Diaries, at one point he happened to turn up at the hotel I was staying at, which was certainly not deliberate on my part! Apparently, he didn't think much better of the hotel than I did. I read the diaries first and passed them on to dh. Although it was entertaining and fascinating, both of us, in turn, were plunged into gloom after finishing them. Maybe not the best choice for a holiday.

Just thought. I obviously haven't learnt my lesson because yesterday I was toying with reading Hiroshima by John Hersy this holiday. (Out on kindle/iBooks tomorrow).

I usually save up books I've been looking forward to reading for ages, for holidays. I don't want light holiday reads; rather big novels to get really absorbed in.

It varies, but I do like to have at least one new as in freshly bought book. Sometimes if I've had a productive trip to the library I'll just take my library books.
This year we are skint so I have a book from the library I've been saving and I shall trawl through my 'to read' pile!
I do take a variety though as I hate getting on holiday and realising that what I actually want to read is a genre I haven't brought.

But... experience has taught me that it's very likely that once on holiday I will look at my carefully chosen reads and think 'Nah - don't fancy that'. I will then spend the time reading something random from our holiday cottage's store,probably something I'd never consider reading at home,or buy a whole lot of new stuff in the 2nd hand shops in our holiday location !
Not very helpful, really.

Tobee - Are the Kenneth Williams Diaries very depressing?

I have a Kindle, and check the free book listings daily, so always have a huge number of unread books on there. As I like re reading books, I'm never short of something to read. What I might be in the mood to read at any given point isn't very predictable either!

IPity. Not for a large part but towards his later years, yes

I'm with cheapskatemum - cheap, fat and as many as I can. It's usually stuff I won't read again so I often leave them behind. I once gave a flight attendant the book I'd just finished on the flight as it was an author she liked!

I usually take a few different genres, maybe a nonfiction travel book, a fat novel and a murder mystery or thriller. I am on hols at the moment and reading The Versions of Us (novel) and Kolymsky Heights (thriller). On Siberia (nonfiction travel) is next. I have also bought a nonfiction book about a woman being held captive in Somalia for 15 months, but that might not get read on this holiday!

I choose books that I've been avoiding, books that look like they might be a difficult slog. Especially non-fiction.

Now I've got a Kindle I take a combination of paid for non-fiction that is likely to be something I'll like, plus free or v cheap fiction (mainly classics or obscure early detective stories or children's novels). And, Kindle or not, at least one Jane Austen, in case everything else I've got turns out to be rubbish.

My selection is likely to include:

something with links to where we are going if possible;
something lengthy and absorbing, possibly challenging;
and
something by an author I already know and like (the safe back up!).

I have a folder on my Kindle of holiday reading.

Usually a combination of recommendations from other people ('The Paying Guests' / 'The Poppy Factory' / 'In the unlikely event') a couple of lighter 'holiday reads'/ best sellers ('Girl on a Train' and 'Us') and a few books that I have been saving up for an opportunity to get properly 'stuck in' ('The Edible Woman'/ 'The Secret History').

I usually take 6 or 7 real books and similar on Kindle.

I keep a goodreads lost of books I've bought but not read yet, and choose the paper books from there.

I take at least two longer / challenging books (this year The Luminaries and The Lacuna) as well as books I know I'll probably enjoy by authors I know I like (Atkinson, Waters, Auster, Murakami). Plus some recs from friends - this year I posted on FB for recs from the last year. I usually also have one or two non fiction and one or two from twitter or book reviews which sound intriguing. I tend to read 10-14 of the books in a two week holiday as I'm a fast reader - it also energises me for the rest of the year as I like to get through fifty - seventy a year and I often go in fits and starts. This year I read nothing from May til July due to work stress etc. But having had a bit of a binge this summer I have started to love reading again.

I take something I've been excited about and waiting for (Elizabeth is Missing, this year), something from a classics/modern classics I feel I should read (Middlemarch was a bit hard to get into on the beach), something set where I'm going if possible and something I think DP will enjoy.

The last one is a wild card - he does it too, and it means if I don't like it I can pass it to him and not feel frustrated at lugging a rubbish book along in my suitcase. This year I was totally hooked on my wild card and his, so it worked extra well!

I must confess that I've never quite got the concept of 'holiday reading'. My reading tastes on holiday are the same as what I read at home - same mix of mostly fiction and a little nonfiction, same mix of authors, although with the caveat the it can be really enjoyable to read something set wherever you are on holiday. Although it's all a moot point really, as with a 1 yr old and 4 yr old I doubt I'm going to get much reading time, on holiday or otherwise!

I don't pack any books for UK trips now, I just visit the local charity shops and see what catches my eye. It opens up your outlook. Many hotels & cafes also have book swaps which are fun and free. You occasionally get surprises too, last week I picked up a couple of paperbacks in Cornwall and later discovered one was signed by the author and dedicated to a friend in thanks for their help during it's writing. As friends read my own writings I found this very inspirational.