Reading the wrong book on a holiday

[PeacockSpringy]

Has anyone else accidentally spoilt a holiday by reading the ‘wrong book’ whist away. I mean like spoiling the mood of a holiday by reading something too sad or intense or dark. I’ve done it a few times now. Worst was last summer on a lovely cruise around Scandinavia and I was reading Miranda July’s All Fours! Completely the wrong vibe for a holiday like that! 🤣 going to be more careful from now on!! Just wondered if this has happened to anyone else. I enjoyed that book but wish I’d read it at another time because it just took over my mood whilst I was away!

I read I’m Glad My Mon Died by Jeanette McCurdy on holiday a couple of years ago. It’s an amazing book but definitely the wrong tone for a relaxing holiday. I also ready Matthew Perry’s autobiography on the same holiday. I don’t know what I was thinking.

I read Susan Hill’s The Vows of Silence on holiday with a large group. Had to go off and have a secret cry.

I just read a really boring book on my most recent holiday and couldn’t get into. I kept trying and lost interest in reading. I should have given up and moved on lot another book. I probably didn’t relax as much as I could have done. Lesson learned. Give it up earlier. It’s not worth it.

I never learn. Past holiday reading has included War and Peace, The Grapes of Wrath and Schindler's Ark...

I think it's that I'm trapped on holiday, so see it as a way to make myself read difficult books!

About 10 years ago I started the 50 page rule. If I'm not loving it by page 50, it's ok to give up. Sometimes I'll keep going a little longer, e.g. with a book club book but it's rare that it picks up past this point.

Life is too short to read bad books.

I recall reading The Grapes of Wrath while solo backpacking and sobbing on my bunk at the end in Australia. Some nice boy in the same dorm noticed and bought me a pint to cheer me up. 😂

Marley and Me.

Racing in the rain.

Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

Most things by Jodie Picoult.

I always read the difficult books on holiday I don't have the headspace for them when I am working. I do think when I read The Handmaid's Tale on holiday that was maybe going a bit far.

I picked up a book the previous guests had left once - it was by Alan Titchmarsh and MOSTLY fine, but the entire set-up for the romance story was that in the first chapter the mother of the family dies while they're on holiday 😶

The joy of a kindle or audible! You can admit something is shite and choose something else.

I took a book to read in hospital when having dd I thought it was a thriller turned out it was a very well written drama about a woman with postpartum psychosis!! I quickly put it away to read at a later date.

I’m glad I’m not the only one :) i don’t mind not finishing a book if it’s not good. Most of the time when this happens, it’s not that the book’s not good, it’s just not right for the holiday I’m on :)

The last 4 chapters of A Little Life on a ski trip. Bad idea

Oh frequently!

I'm in my 60s, so holidays used to mean reading through my selection of books that I'd packed for the plane, and then having to buy whatever shit the local Greek corner shop had that was written in English in their 'stocked for the tourists' section when I'd run out of things to read.

I've read a lot of badly written bonkbusters and cheap horror that I would otherwise not have bought.

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.

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 😳

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.

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 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.

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 😂

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.

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 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!

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.

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.