An essential piece of travel kit, these books pack imaginative getaways of their own
There may not be much summer to speak of but – rain or shine – there's always the inexorable publishing cycle. We can still look forward to an imminent burst of summer (and beach) reading as the books pages limber up for the holiday season.
This is one of those rare moments in the year when the reading public comes together as a community, instinctively making a number of popular choices. A similar national conversation, at a slightly higher level, occurs in the run-up to a big prize like the Man Booker. It's a faint reminder of the kind of homogenous literary community that existed in the days of the Net Book Agreement, and bookshops BA (Before Amazon).
Last year, Fifty Shades was the (more than slightly shameful) airport No 1. Not long before, Victoria Hislop's The Island – ardently promoted by Richard & Judy – was another runaway hit. Further back, I can remember the time when Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate, a novel in verse, a work of great charm and erudition, was a popular choice. So it goes. This year, expect to see a lot of Dan Brown and plenty of Hilary Mantel, with a welcome scattering of Gill Hornby's The Hive, as you navigate poolside past the sun-loungers.
In the past, readers advertised their choices, willy nilly, through upturned covers. With the Kindle, the acquisition of holiday reading is both much easier (no reason not to take The Collected Works of Austen or Dickens) – and much more discreet. An e-reader will lighten your load and also disguise your choice.
Whatever the format, flying (and flight) goes with books. I would find it hard, if not impossible, to take a plane journey without a book or a notebook. Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest says that she never travels without her diary because – as Oscar Wilde has her put it – "One should always have something sensational to read on the train". A book for a plane should be engrossing, but not so compelling that you've finished it before you reach the departure gate.
There's more than just a question of entertainment at issue here. I'd suggest that books can offer two kinds of flight: an escape to other worlds in the unfettered space of our heads; and also, if we're lucky, some inspiration too, a take-off for the earthbound mind. In short, a magic carpet for the spirit and the imagination.
In my own travels into the world of airy nothing, I have some favourite companions: Joy In The Morning by PG Wodehouse; Like Life by Lorrie Moore; Nostromo by Joseph Conrad; The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford; Women in Love by DH Lawrence; USA by John Dos Passos; and The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. A mixed bag, for many moods: that's what holiday reading demands.
Here's another dividend from the digital revolution. With a wi-fi connection, we can download impromptu choices anywhere and at any time. Summer, beach and holiday reading has never been so liberated. All we need now is some sunshine.
via Books: Fiction | guardian.co.uk
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