Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Anyone done a reading Retreat?

47 replies

schmalex · 22/01/2025 17:47

Just saw this weekend break for book lovers in Muddy Stilettos. Has anyone done anything like this? I just need to persuade my husband to look after the kids...
bookloversretreats.com/

OP posts:
Shakeyourbaublesandsmile · 22/01/2025 17:50

Bloody hell that’s expensive but look lovely

saveforthat · 22/01/2025 17:53

I've never done it but really want to now. Although it does seem really expensive. I mean you could book yourself into a hotel that does murder mystery dinners and spend the weekend reading and going for walks for much less.

lifeturnsonadime · 22/01/2025 17:55

Looks good OP. If you can afford it go for it.

Dappy777 · 22/01/2025 18:41

It's a great idea. I assume you choose the books. No way would I pay to go somewhere and be told what I have to read.

God, how amazing it would be to have the time and money to just book yourself into some beautiful, quiet place and devote yourself to all those books you've meant to read but never got around to. If I could have, say, three months, I'd want to read one of the following:

George Eliot: Middlemarch
Virginia Woolf: Orlando
Ford Madox Ford: Parade's End trilogy
Jane Austen: Emma
Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders
Tolstoy: War and Peace
Dostoyevsky: Brothers Karamazov
Herman Hesse: The Glass Bead Game
Hilary Mantel: Thomas Cromwell/Wolf Hall trilogy
Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy
P. G. Wodehouse: The Blandings books

All have been on my to-read list for years. I'd love a chance to fully immerse myself in each of them – or just one!

tobee · 23/01/2025 02:46

I'd rather go on a book retreat and not meet any authors, or play games, or chat to other people. I mean I might want to do those things but not on a book retreat. 😉

I'll have the food and cocktails though! 😋

My idea of a book retreat would be much more solitary. Cosy old style hotel with lots of armchairs in quiet corners. And somewhat less expensive.

Friendofdennis · 23/01/2025 02:57

I stayed in a monastery once and took a load of spiritual books with me and also novels. I was also able to access the library which was so interesting. I ate with other visitors (in silence) and also went to some of the meditations. I made a donation for the stay. It was a wonderful time of reflection, reading and writing I would recommend something like this wholeheartedly

Tiddlywinkly · 23/01/2025 09:34

Friendofdennis · 23/01/2025 02:57

I stayed in a monastery once and took a load of spiritual books with me and also novels. I was also able to access the library which was so interesting. I ate with other visitors (in silence) and also went to some of the meditations. I made a donation for the stay. It was a wonderful time of reflection, reading and writing I would recommend something like this wholeheartedly

Sounds amazing. Please you tell us where you went?

GrainOfSalt · 23/01/2025 10:27

It looks interesting but not much time for reading 😆I would rather just check into a nice hotel for a couple of days... And read!! A quarter of the price and loads more time for reading.

teentantrums · 23/01/2025 12:35

Dappy777 · 22/01/2025 18:41

It's a great idea. I assume you choose the books. No way would I pay to go somewhere and be told what I have to read.

God, how amazing it would be to have the time and money to just book yourself into some beautiful, quiet place and devote yourself to all those books you've meant to read but never got around to. If I could have, say, three months, I'd want to read one of the following:

George Eliot: Middlemarch
Virginia Woolf: Orlando
Ford Madox Ford: Parade's End trilogy
Jane Austen: Emma
Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders
Tolstoy: War and Peace
Dostoyevsky: Brothers Karamazov
Herman Hesse: The Glass Bead Game
Hilary Mantel: Thomas Cromwell/Wolf Hall trilogy
Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy
P. G. Wodehouse: The Blandings books

All have been on my to-read list for years. I'd love a chance to fully immerse myself in each of them – or just one!

I'm not trying to be snarky but surely you could read most of them in less than 3 months without having to retreat?

schmalex · 23/01/2025 13:40

Dappy777 · 22/01/2025 18:41

It's a great idea. I assume you choose the books. No way would I pay to go somewhere and be told what I have to read.

God, how amazing it would be to have the time and money to just book yourself into some beautiful, quiet place and devote yourself to all those books you've meant to read but never got around to. If I could have, say, three months, I'd want to read one of the following:

George Eliot: Middlemarch
Virginia Woolf: Orlando
Ford Madox Ford: Parade's End trilogy
Jane Austen: Emma
Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders
Tolstoy: War and Peace
Dostoyevsky: Brothers Karamazov
Herman Hesse: The Glass Bead Game
Hilary Mantel: Thomas Cromwell/Wolf Hall trilogy
Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy
P. G. Wodehouse: The Blandings books

All have been on my to-read list for years. I'd love a chance to fully immerse myself in each of them – or just one!

A three month reading retreat, now you're talking!

On a desert island...

OP posts:
TinyMouseTheatre · 23/01/2025 15:05

On a desert island

I'd prefer a Greek one Wink

Lollygaggle · 23/01/2025 15:15

For similar money you can go in the Times literary cruise on the Queen Mary 2 . Various talks every day by many different authors , you get to chat with them over meals !
It has the world’s largest floating library and fantastic food and facilities .
Huge variety of authors over the years from Bernadine Evaristo to Alexander Mcall Smith to Val McDermott .
Thoroughly recommend . https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/cruise-types/event-cruises/literature-festival-at-sea-2025

Literature Festival at Sea 2025 - Cunard Cruises

Sail away on a seven-night Cunard special event voyage, surrounded by authors, journalists, historians, and fellow book lovers. Curated by The Times and Sunday Times, discover provoking conversation at Q&A sessions, meet your favourite writers and enjo...

https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/cruise-types/event-cruises/literature-festival-at-sea-2025

TinyMouseTheatre · 23/01/2025 17:44

Lollygaggle · 23/01/2025 15:15

For similar money you can go in the Times literary cruise on the Queen Mary 2 . Various talks every day by many different authors , you get to chat with them over meals !
It has the world’s largest floating library and fantastic food and facilities .
Huge variety of authors over the years from Bernadine Evaristo to Alexander Mcall Smith to Val McDermott .
Thoroughly recommend . https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/cruise-types/event-cruises/literature-festival-at-sea-2025

I'd never heard of this! How? How have I never heard of this? Shock

Dappy777 · 23/01/2025 18:32

teentantrums · 23/01/2025 12:35

I'm not trying to be snarky but surely you could read most of them in less than 3 months without having to retreat?

Yes, probably. I think War and Peace would take three months (I'm a slow reader). But, sure, many of the others could be read in a week. I do like the idea of total immersion though. How many of us will ever get that chance? It's sad to think of it, but almost none of us will ever have the time to read even a fraction of the truly great books, and we'll certainly never have the chance to do nothing else for months on end.

I remember the philosopher Bryan Magee saying that he used to do just that. He'd take some great monster, like Schopenhauer's World as Will or Plato's collected dialogues or Dante's Divine Comedy or Darwin's Origin of Species or whatever and totally immerse himself in that one book. He'd go to a cottage in France, with no phones or distractions, and do nothing but read and re-read. In the evenings he'd walk along the beach meditating on what he'd read, and then next day pick up where he'd left off. I'd love that. A book is a miracle. It is the mind/consciousness/inner life of someone at the limits of what it can do. Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, for example, is a great mind getting as deep down as it possibly can (not that I've read it!). Same with Hamlet or Paradise Lost.

Re-thinking it, if I had three whole months, and could devote them to just one book, I'd go for one of these:

Tolstoy: War and Peace
Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time (couple of pages a day!)
Proust: Remembrance of things Past
Bertrand Russell: History of Western Philosophy and The Problems of Philosophy (sewn together to make one book)
Oscar Wilde: Complete non-fiction (i.e all his essays and letters)
Richard Dawkins: The Ancestor's Tale
Carl Sagan: Cosmos
Aldous Huxley: Collected Essays
Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything (the giant hardback edition)

It isn't so much the time it takes to read the book (you could probably read Russell's Problems of Philosophy in a day if you really went for it), more the opportunity to totally immerse yourself in it – to re-read bits, meditate on them, etc. You know, live that one book. It would also be striking just how much of an effect that one book would have if you spoke to no one and did nothing else but read and re-read it. Imagine being locked in a room for a week with nothing to read but Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad and Philip Larkin. God, you'd be suicidal bu the time they let you out. Now imagine reading nothing but Dickens and Jane Austen and P G Wodehouse instead. You'd come out floating on air.

BiscuitsBooks · 23/01/2025 19:11

@Dappy777 you are so right, that sounds idyllic. I'd add to that the luxury of having someone else with you at the end of the day to talk through your meditations on those works.

keiratwiceknightly · 23/01/2025 19:31

A friend of mine runs these. Twice a year, stately home, she sorts all the food (mostly picky teas), we arrive Fri night, drink wine and eat cake all weekend, and read lots of books. Only required reading is for Saturday evening when we all meet around the baronial fireplace to discuss the book choice. Utterly delightful! And great value - £250-300 rather than the price on the link.

lifeturnsonadime · 23/01/2025 23:18

Lollygaggle · 23/01/2025 15:15

For similar money you can go in the Times literary cruise on the Queen Mary 2 . Various talks every day by many different authors , you get to chat with them over meals !
It has the world’s largest floating library and fantastic food and facilities .
Huge variety of authors over the years from Bernadine Evaristo to Alexander Mcall Smith to Val McDermott .
Thoroughly recommend . https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/cruise-types/event-cruises/literature-festival-at-sea-2025

I'm about to blame you for the fact that I'm now looking at booking a transatlantic cruise !

teentantrums · 24/01/2025 06:34

I think I would really struggle to read for more than a couple of hours a day (which I do now). Physically and mentally I find it too hard but maybe I would get used to it. I would hate for it to become a chore. That said, if I were to devote myself to intensive reading, I would choose one of the following:

  • Crime and Punishment
  • The Canterbury Tales
  • The Divine Comedy
DancefloorAcrobatics · 24/01/2025 06:41

I am intrigued.

But I already have F*ALl days that are reserved for reading in the wintermonths... but I'd happily swap microwave meals for a gourmet dinner!

teentantrums · 24/01/2025 07:10

F*ALl
Translation please!

Lollygaggle · 24/01/2025 09:56

lifeturnsonadime · 23/01/2025 23:18

I'm about to blame you for the fact that I'm now looking at booking a transatlantic cruise !

My work here is done …….

JaninaDuszejko · 24/01/2025 15:09

I'm planning to devote two hours a day to reading when I retire. In fact my favourite holiday ever was during the pandemic when I had two weeks off work and had a day out every second day and spend the afternoon of the other days sitting in my hanging chair in the garden reading. Bliss.

Here's another reading retreat that seems less frenetic: Middle Colenso Farm

Holidays | Cornwall | Middle Colenso Farm

The Reading Party is a retreat for readers, an opportunity to read and talk about books in a relaxed setting.

https://www.middlecolensofarm.co.uk/thereadingparty

schmalex · 24/01/2025 15:19

Lollygaggle · 23/01/2025 15:15

For similar money you can go in the Times literary cruise on the Queen Mary 2 . Various talks every day by many different authors , you get to chat with them over meals !
It has the world’s largest floating library and fantastic food and facilities .
Huge variety of authors over the years from Bernadine Evaristo to Alexander Mcall Smith to Val McDermott .
Thoroughly recommend . https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/cruise-types/event-cruises/literature-festival-at-sea-2025

It does look amazing but not really similar money - that's £1349 for dual occupancy whereas this one is £800. And you'd have to fly yourself home again.
I am tempted although I'd get seasick on a transatlantic so maybe I should stay on dry land...

OP posts:
mumto2teenagers · 24/01/2025 15:26

I think I would rather book a lodge or cottage in the country for me and my dogs, and possibly my daughter if she wants to join me. Just spend the days reading and going for walks.

Lollygaggle · 24/01/2025 15:30

schmalex · 24/01/2025 15:19

It does look amazing but not really similar money - that's £1349 for dual occupancy whereas this one is £800. And you'd have to fly yourself home again.
I am tempted although I'd get seasick on a transatlantic so maybe I should stay on dry land...

if you book earlier it’s cheaper than booking now , also depends which way . Also it’s for 7 days not 3/4.

Queen Mary 2 is last transatlantic liner so is built to cross Atlantic but the Atlantic in November/December can get a bit rough . We’ve been a couple of times now and poor Marcus Brigstocke definitely suffered on one crossing , but mostly it has been great . I like lumpy weather though.

Swipe left for the next trending thread