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!

God, I read that utter shite on holiday. It was so bad.

Oh yes. I went on a trip to India and thought A Fine Balance would be a great read. I spent most of the trip in tears and depressive contemplation, despite the wonderful sites of the Taj Mahal and the Rajasthan palaces around me. Twenty years later, it still remains the most depressing book I've read and it really ruined my wonderful India holiday.

I’m planing to read The Nightingale on holiday next week - bad choice?

I once was reading A Thousand Splendid Suns on a train to Edinburgh; I was already into the second half and was crying from Grantham until I got off at Waverley. It was exhausting!

Oh yes I’ve remembered another one, I once thought it would be a good idea to read Zola’s Germinal on a cruise, that was really depressing too but I didnt feel devastated by it like I did with A Fine Balance.

I read “for whom the bell tolls” in Disney, the happiest place on earth!

it did not toll for me…

You are definitely not the only one OP. I took Sarah's Key on holiday to France a good few years ago, and oh my god.
It's fiction, but based around real events during the Holocaust. What was I thinking?? As a mother of young DC at the time, it devastated me.
The book written by Kate McCann about Maddie's disappearance was in a villa in Spain we stayed in one year. I picked it up - bad decision. I spent the rest of the holiday a neurotic mess. Again, What was I thinking??

I learnt from my mistakes this year and took Liane Moriarty’s The Last Anniversary and then picked up a copy of The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas. Neither made me feel cross or spoilt my holiday 😆

I read the Goldfinch going round Japan. It certainly made me grumpy on the train!

I’ve had two ‘bad holiday book’ experiences. One was set in the place we visited so I powered through purely because I recognised some settings, but I hated the main character and the style of writing, and it was all just meaningless drivel. One night I stayed up late to finish the bloody thing so it didn’t taint another day,

The other was a Shari Lapena book which I mainly enjoyed until it all got a bit silly then had the shittest ending ever. I’ll never read one of hers again.

My mum once ruined a family holiday by reading Wild Swans and staying in a horrendous mood for two weeks - a both horrifying and very long book - and I did the same with Lionel Shriver’s Double Fault, which made me snappish and suspicious. The year I read The Shipping News and Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow on a sun lounger in Greece was quite odd, too - very difficult to get it right for the weather. The best mood I’ve ever been on a holiday was when I read the Cazalet books back to back. They didn’t match the setting but were so lovely it didn’t matter, and I was serene and charming (so I say) for the whole holiday.

All the time!
On my last holiday i thought it would be the perfect oppurtunity to read a biography of Cramner. Another time i thought i'd read Moby Dick.
Thank god for charity shops.

A couple of years ago I was going on a UK mini break in October so I picked up The Pumpkin Spice Cafe to take with me thinking it would be a lovely, cosy autumnal story. It wasn't. It was extremely badly written, predictable smut. Almost as badly written as Fifty Shades. Put me right off any of the other books in that series.

Well I’ve learnt never to take any of my book club reads on holiday. Can generally guarantee they will not lift the mood and the male characters always seem to be utter shits and I spend several days in my male dominated house giving DH and DS’s the side eye.