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

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

What we're reading

So I have got nine books

34 replies

janeite · 04/08/2009 18:00

Nine books for a two week holiday - do you think I am likely to cope, or will I be chewing my own arm in frustration after day six?

I have got:
The Moonstone
The Woman In White
Let The Right One In (Swedish vampire thing)
Netherland
Something about a rat that I found in a charity shop - can't remember what it is
Tom Bedlam
Something about WW1 - forgotten what it is
A Georgette Heyer
Animal Farm (re-read)

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roisin · 05/08/2009 22:53

After lugging a huge bag of books around for the past 2 weeks to keep us all (especially ds1) suitably occupied on hols, I have suddenly realised the benefit of those e-book reader thingies!

When are you off? Have fun!

jkklpu · 05/08/2009 22:31

My cousin brought The Rats on holiday once when we were teenagers - the extracts she read out were enough to put me off forever

janeite · 05/08/2009 21:19

Now I went through a James Herbert phase as a teenager but I soon got over it!

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jkklpu · 05/08/2009 19:55

Janeite - Nor I and don't intend to. Have never read any John Grisham or James Herbert either, come to that

cathcat · 05/08/2009 19:23

No, add me to your list. I, too, have never read the Davinci Code.

janeite · 05/08/2009 13:05

Oh gosh - I may be the only person in the world, aside from dp, who has not even attempted the Davinci code.

Dp says he doesn't care what MNers say, I can't pack any more books!

I've put Tom Bedlam in my flight bag, so it had better be good! I will also lower myself to buy a crappy magazine - Red or Marie Claire, do you think?

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LoveTheCarbs · 05/08/2009 12:28

I also enjoyed the Swedish vampires. Well written, different and you care about the characters. I haven't seen the film as I don't really enjoy horror movies but may do now I've read the book.

I'm glad I didn't persevere with Labyrinthe, didn't get past the first few chapters. It reminded me of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code which I found boring and tedious..

cheapskatemum · 04/08/2009 22:45

DCs asked me yesterday how many books I was taking to read on holiday & I said I reckoned about 8. They laughed & groaned & said I couldn't off-load any into their suitcases! We're going for 3 weeks, I'm thinking I might have to reconsider.

janeite · 04/08/2009 21:40

Ooh - glad to hear you enjoyed the Swedish vampires, Tooifbysea.

Has anybody read Tom Bedlam? I got it because it had a nice cover! Or Netherland?

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jkklpu · 04/08/2009 20:50

I can't wait for 10 years hence when I will be able to read books on holiday again. Cathcat - sorry I HATED Cloud Atlas: full of repeated grammatical mistakes and then Sloosha's bloody crossing. Like the sound of Janeite's list, though.

cathcat · 04/08/2009 20:45

I am very impressed that you can read The Woman in White so quickly...I read it last winter and it took me about 6 weeks. 500 pages of dense type! I did enjoy it though.

I agree that Labyrinth was a pile of rubbish.
Have you read David Mitchell? Cloud Atlas is quite long.

TwoIfBySea · 04/08/2009 20:37

I haven't seen the film but I read Let The Right One In recently and you'll be up all night wanting to finish it, really gripping and there is one part that is truly nightmare scary which I believe is not in the film. Really good book.

janeite · 04/08/2009 20:15

Not yet - but am just about to go and play against dp. Beat him last night and hope to do so again!

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EachPeachPearMum · 04/08/2009 20:08

"Something about a rat that I found in a charity shop"... now did you find the book or the rat in the shop? (made me laugh anyway!)

BIWI- I like you're thinking! Pre-dc I would have taken 11 or 12 for a week... now though... I managed 1 and a quarter last holiday (was for 2 weeks too ) Good to know once they're older I'll get to read again.

Janeite- did you read the scrabble book yet? I read that n holiday...

janeite · 04/08/2009 18:56

Tried and failed with both of those before.

Might take Sense And Sensibility to lighten things up a bit!

I think the rat thing is supposed to be quite funny and the Heyer will be lovely and light.

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Quattrocento · 04/08/2009 18:52

Why not take a massive must-read-before-I-die kind of book so that it's impossible to run out of books. Like War and Peace or Anna Karenina.

Too much mist and gloom in your selection - you've got a blazing fireside reading list. Your WW1 book will be full of mud and death, animal farm isn't cheery, Wilkie Collins is marvellous but shouldn't be read in daylight ....

Terpsichore · 04/08/2009 18:49

The film's incredibly low-key and non-bloody, apart from a couple of memorable scenes, which makes it very effective. But I suspect the Scandinavians do this sort of thing much more tastefully!

janeite · 04/08/2009 18:45

I haven't seen the film, no. I don't 'do' horror films and generally only read Stephen King in the horror genre but dp really wanted this, so I thought I'd give it a go too.

Have read most of Rose Tremain's but don't remember that one - will look out for it.

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Terpsichore · 04/08/2009 18:40

janeite, have you seen the film of 'Let the Right One In'? Very creepy and beautifully done. I won't give anything away but I'd be interested to hear what the book's like.

BecauseImWorthIt · 04/08/2009 18:31

I have to confess that I quite enjoyed Labyrinthe, and on the strength of that I bought Sepulchre, which was a total, total, pile of shite. I got quite cross!

Terpsichore · 04/08/2009 18:29

Ooops, sorry janeite, you are the OP!

Terpsichore · 04/08/2009 18:29

janeite, unfortunately I have to read - it's a long-standing compulsion . Never go anywhere without a book and get very anxious if for some reason I can't lay hands on one!

But yes, TWIW is marvellous. As is 'The Moonstone'.

OP, another book I've been thinking about re-reading is Rose Tremain's 'The Way I Found Her'. I loved it - it's narrated by a 13-year-old boy who lives with his mother in Paris and embarks on an 'adventure' trying to find one of their friends who's disappeared. I think it tends to divide opinion (the hero is an unusually mature-sounding 13-year old), but I would recommend it highly...

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whosturnisit · 04/08/2009 18:29

I remember the holidays before children. I would reckon on a book a day. This would allow for one or two failures. Then when the DCs were small it was 1 book per week. Now they are 11 and 13 and I have a pile of 7 books for 2 weeks. It's a short flight and they are all favourite authors.

DS2 is also a big reader so I need to find enough books to keep him happy for 2 weeks.

I've seldom been anywhere where there wasn't a bookshelf of "donated " books but I'd hate to rely on it.

janeite · 04/08/2009 18:21

Sorry - stray H there! The Woman in White.

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janeite · 04/08/2009 18:20

Am looking forward to THWIW now!

Lucky you, being able to read in the car - it makes me sick just looking at the cover.

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