Actually, the term "holiday reading" has lost much of its meaning for me now that I'm on holiday all year round. I am at liberty to pick up a book at any time and drift off to sleep in a matter of minutes. It's all a far cry from those endless sessions on the beach in the south of France, wrestling with a new book by Dick Francis and marvelling at his ability to get away with writing the same book year after year by the simple expedient of changing the title. Eventually, even I cottoned on to the fact that I was being taken for a ride and abandoned him in favour of a newcomer called Sidney Sheldon.
What do the books of Dick Francis, Sidney Sheldon, Jeffrey Archer, Mary Higgins Clark, Patricia Cornwell (All That Remains, The Body Farm, Cut Into Little Pieces, Best Before, Look in The Freezer!) et al have in common, apart from the fact that they are all written by a computer? The answer is that they are all bestsellers. So perhaps I could do worse than check out the books in the English section of the bookstall at Dijon station? To my astonishment I found that ALL the books were bestsellers! I decided to refine my search and looked for "Number One Bestsellers", but found that there were an awful lot of these as well. Not to be outdone, I refined my search yet further, insisting on the following criteria: "Number One INTERNATIONAL Bestseller". Lots of these as well. Still, my research unearthed one interesting insight. The more hysterical the blurb the less likely I am to have heard of the author.
Any ideas for holiday reading? What are you reading at the moment? All suggestions most welcome!
What do the books of Dick Francis, Sidney Sheldon, Jeffrey Archer, Mary Higgins Clark, Patricia Cornwell (All That Remains, The Body Farm, Cut Into Little Pieces, Best Before, Look in The Freezer!) et al have in common, apart from the fact that they are all written by a computer? The answer is that they are all bestsellers. So perhaps I could do worse than check out the books in the English section of the bookstall at Dijon station? To my astonishment I found that ALL the books were bestsellers! I decided to refine my search and looked for "Number One Bestsellers", but found that there were an awful lot of these as well. Not to be outdone, I refined my search yet further, insisting on the following criteria: "Number One INTERNATIONAL Bestseller". Lots of these as well. Still, my research unearthed one interesting insight. The more hysterical the blurb the less likely I am to have heard of the author.
Any ideas for holiday reading? What are you reading at the moment? All suggestions most welcome!
Your 'research' reminds me of those truncated critiques one used to see outside London theatres - still can, for all I know. Perhaps, in the case of books the full sentence should read "It would have been pleasant to be reading an international best seller instead of this load of twaddle"? But I have no wish to be unkind about the sainted Dick Francis - there was much more to his books than a mere change of names.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, might I suggest Curtis Sittenfeld's 'American Wife'.
My "research" reveals Curtis Sittenfeld to be a woman. Is she any good?
ReplyDeleteTalking of American wives, did you know that in 1910 a quarter of the members of the House of Lords had American wives?
Very good, imo.
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't know about those American peeresses, or at any rate not the number of them! Wasn't that the heyday for our landed gentry to light upon this novel and wonderful way to repair their crumbling estates and restore their gambling-denuded finances ? [thinks: I wonder how many are nowadays marrying Russian heiresses? ]
To each their own, of course, but see if this interests you: Two Lives, by Vikram Seth
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/books/review/06mishra.html
I came to this book through this program:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003jhsk
-lesle
(Talking of American wives, did you know that in 1910 a quarter of the members of the House of Lords had American wives?)
ReplyDeleteWinston Churchill, while addressing the US congress in 1941: "I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been an American and my mother British, instead of the other way around, I might have got here on my own."
-lesle
Many thanks for both these suggestions. I shall in the first instance look out for them in our local bookswap library which has a goodly array of books.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I am reading "A Time of Gifts" by Patrick Leigh Fermor
'Love' Patrick LF. Mobile library calls up the hill today (once every 3 weeks) and I am going to order Paul Theroux's 'The Tao of Travel'.
ReplyDeleteYou are obviously a fan of travel books, Sara. Like me! Have you read Eric Newby's "On the Shores of the Mediterranean"?
ReplyDeleteI was interested to learn of your mobile library. Is there a good selection of books? Our English-language bookswap library is thriving thanks to the constant arrival/departure of barge and boat owners. In fact there are almost too many books and we don't know where to put them!