Subscriber thread: alternative summer reads
Maybe bonkbusters aren't your thing?
Hello,
I’m off on holiday next week - a proper holiday with a pool and everything; not a modified work trip. (By the way, I have a fantastic series of guest posts lined up for you, but this is neither the time nor the place.) I have good intentions to do all the things you’re supposed to do on holiday: switch off (ha!), eat seafood on the beach, drink Fanta limón.
At this point, I always get into a fluster about what books to bring. I feel a diffuse kind of pressure to relax a little and pick up some ‘summer reads’ at the airport. But that’s really not my thing. In truth, some of my greatest summer holiday reads have been the kind of books that make other people want to scream and hide. I see holidays as a brilliant time to go deep into books that require time, patience and concentration. My favourite ever holiday read is Moby Dick, followed closely by Ulysses.
This year, I’m taking Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer, which is apparently about not being able to write a book about D. H. Lawrence. Sounds fun, right? I’ve also bought Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Birth of Psychedelics (because all those things sound interesting), and Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time. I will also bring my Kindle, because then I can follow any last-minute reading whims.
So over to you: What is the best book you’ve ever taken on holiday? And what are you reading this summer?
Take care,
Katherine
For a trip to Finland I packed: Boel Westin's VERY good biography of Tove Jansson (Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words) and This Life: Why Mortality Makes Us Free by Martin Hägglund (A meditation on mortality that moves into a case for socialist futures. I have always thought the Christian idea of heaven that was given to me in childhood was really...suspect and unappealing? I just am "happy" up there forever? To what end!? This book helped me verbalize my feelings and find my way to my own beliefs.) I like when my reads reflect where I am, it gives me a sense of groundedness for the trip itself.
I also really love adrienne maree brown's Grievers series of sci-fi novellas for a shorter or fiction read.
I have an irrational fear of *running out of reading material* on vacation, so I'm always looking for a good chonky novel that I know I won't be able to get through no matter how long my flights are delayed. This summer's travel reading has been The Mirror and the Light, the third book in Hilary Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. Not exactly uplifting, but it does keep me interested! And I've still got 300 pages left!