Books you've read only because you found them in a holiday cottage.

[SwedishEdith]

Currently reading Nicci Gerrard's 'A Winter House' - hate all the characters but feel compelled to finish it.

Just remembered that I read a David Baddiel one once and cannot remember anything about it at all.

Kindles bother me for this reason.

I get that they're very convienient etc etc but once you have one, you never read a book just becasue it's all there was at the time and you never leave your books lying around for someone else to find.

aargh I wrote a reply and then mumsnet broke, I'll try again

I have two

The first was David Niven's autobiography, I found it unputdownable. The way he wrote about his wife's passing was very touching.

The second has been haunting me for nigh on 20 years, I've now given in and bought a copy to read every year or so. It's quite a bleak tale called Jenny's Mountain and has somehow turned up in about 8 holiday destinations all over the world. It's quite an old readers digest type of story, I guess it never would have been in the Times 100 but somehow I am compelled to read it whenever I find a copy.

A biography of Wallis simpson. Felt quite sorry for her after I'd read it

Oswald I came on the thread to say David Niven's autobiography as well! I found it in a B & B somewhere years ago. Was riveting but I would have never read it otherwise.

I read "The Road to Tara", a biography of Margaret Mitchell. I really enjoyed it and listened to Gone with the Wind on audiobook as a result. Gone with the Wind is incredibly long.

Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Not in a cottage, in a research ship's library. That edition had a Mad Man style cover, with a large-breasted woman in a revealing cocktail dress lounging on a sofa the illustrator clearly never read the book.

Somewhere Towards The End by Diana Athill, in a house in the Sierra Nevada. Wonderful book (and wonderful holiday, too - would love to go back, though would have to take DD this time, so perhaps less time for lounging and reading )

The Ian Rush autobiography was an emergency read once. Thankfully I managed to spread my own books out sufficiently so it wasn't needed in the end.

Vampire Beach. Not quite as bad as it looked!

I came across John Grisham's 'A Time to Kill' on a ship I was on with my husband, must be the best part of 30 years ago. This was before he was huge as an author. Became a big fan and read everything of his now.
More recently, a couple of years ago in Sri Lanka, I picked up a Jo Nesbo book, can't remember which one though, and now love his books. I don't think I'd ever have bothered with his work otherwise, though I do see the odd one popping up in Tesco these days.

I read David Niven's autobiography on holiday last week too!

Is it like the Gideon Bible of holiday cottages?

I also read Elizabeth Is Missing, which I quite enjoyed.

I hated all the books I took with me though, so their shelves now runneth over.

Some historical thing about Arbella Stuart; pretty interesting, as it turned out.

A Louise Welsh novel; The Cutting Room, I think. Surprisingly enjoyable (I don't tend to like crime/thriller type novels). Having said that, I wouldn't/haven't gone looking up her other stuff.

Dawn French's Autobiography. Not funny, just self absorbed and boring. Meh.

A book about slavery which was compelling but really grim in parts.
Called: 'The Long Song' by Diana Levy.

Also: 'An Echo in the Bone' by Diana ?
A Time Travelling book about the American Civil War and Surgery.
Really gripping -learned LOADS.

Agree about Kindles. Sometimes it is the unexpected 'find' that takes you on a journey.

Dopey - an echo in the bone is the seventh book in a brilliant series by Diana Gabaldon. Might be worth looking up the rest if you liked it (starts with Cross Stitch).

I love that the David Niven book keeps popping up, I wonder if it's the same copy. Mine was found in a hammock in Hokianga (spelling might be dodgy). I ended up extending my stay there so I could finish it. I love the idea of a slightly battered paperback hitch hiking across the world spreading the message that David Niven was a jolly good egg.

In the real world, I am yet to meet anyone who has read it, and my friends are generally biography reading types.

Great idea for a thread. Last year I read The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which I'd vaguely meant to read for years, and then it was just there. Really enjoyed it.

There were a few in our cottage this year that I meant to read but sadly didn't get round to, mostly because ghostwritten was nice and long and took me a week, and then I got bogged down in Introducing the Ancient Greeks.

Funny, I've spotted the David Niven book loads of times but not read it. Must do now (when I next see it in a cottage).

I finished the Nicci Gerrard one and am now reading a Rose Tremain one - which, even just 3 chapters in, seems better (although, weirdly, has a very similar theme). I'm wondering that if I don't finish it, can I take it home as long as I leave one of my own? Cottage etiquette dilemmas!

I do have a kindle but treat that as a reserve. I'd also choose a real book over a kindle version - I see the kindle as just for 'travelling light' holidays (flying).

All those who've read the David Niven autoviography - is it the one called 'The Moon is a Balloon'? If so, I agree, it's a great book and strangley seems to be a holiday cottage favourite.

My contribution is Richard Branson's autobiography. Something I'd never normally read, but the two thirds I did read, were pretty interesting. One day, I'll buy a copy and finish it!

I haven't perused the holiday cottage reading so much since I got a Kindle, but I read "The Thread" by Victoria Hislop when in Cornwall a couple of years ago. I had read "The Island" while staying at another holiday place a few years earlier so this had been on my "might read if I get round to it" list.

Last holiday cottage I read Early Days, a brief account of "Miss Read's" (Dora Saint in real-life) childhood. I hadn't read any of her books for about 20 years but it made me want to read them again. DS is starting school in September so it is quite interesting to read about village schooling some 60 years ago.

I found a copy of "The Dice Man" aged 12 on holiday in Portugal, blimey! That was an eye opener for a 12year old

I know Kindles sometimes get slated on here as they're not "real" books, but I do think the change has really widened my horizons in terms of what I read in a bit of a holiday cottage way. It was so liberating to give away the bulk of my books, and just keep the very special ones. I can actually see them on the shelf now.

When it was all fields, I used find reading material by either mooching in charity shops for paperbacks, wait ages at the library to read something recent, or be looking at what was on offer in a Waterstones type store. Typically these would be books in the top 100 times bestseller or whatever it was called. When I was travelling we used to make a point of swapping books and it was this that made me widen my horizons more.

With Kindle I seem to have so many random interactions which point to books that in the past I never would have read. I love that it is so much easier to self publish and I have discovered so many writers that perhaps I never would have come across before. I also love that I can read trash without anyone knowing. It may not be literary but so good for the soul. JR Rain anyone? Almost Goosebumps for grown ups.

Fifty shades of Grey.

As the couple we were renting from were in their 80s- I seriously hope it was left behind by someone else

shudders

I read a Marian Keyes book ' Sushi for Beginners ' - thought it was dross but felt compelled to finish it.

Had never heard of her but was surprised to discover others thought she was good.

Just finished reading this and put it back on the book shelf for other holiday makers...

"Call me Elisabeth", a supposedly true story about a middle class suburban mother-of-6 who took up escort work to pay private school fees.

Not a holiday cottage but the only thing I could find at a book swap in northern Thailand, Into the heart of Borneo by Redmond O'Hanlon. Fantastic and so funny. I really recommend it.