What books do you read on holiday, if any?

by Stox 16 Thu Aug 02, 2012 12:23 am

I was reading the other day that many people enjoy reading while on holiday. So given this is mostly a Political forum. What sort of Political books do you enjoy reading. or do you not read political books but enjoy a history book or a story of a murder.

I ask this out of interest and to find out if people still enjoy a book now we have the internet?

by Shirina Thu Aug 02, 2012 3:37 am

I swap back and forth between historical works and high fantasy.

The last one I read was A History of Britain, Vol. I by Simon Schama and I'm gearing up to finally, at last, after many long years, read J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings series.

by ROB Thu Aug 02, 2012 5:05 am

WHAT BOOKS DO YOU READ ON HOLIDAY IF ANY?

I can't read, and they don't give me holidays.

by Stox 16 Thu Aug 02, 2012 5:30 am

Shirina wrote:I swap back and forth between historical works and high fantasy.

The last one I read was A History of Britain, Vol. I by Simon Schama and I'm gearing up to finally, at last, after many long years, read J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings series.

Hi Shirina
A History of Britain, Vol. I[/i] by Simon Schama is a good read that. I have just finished. Stop Go Crash Boom by Michel Albert and Jean Boissonnat. is on economics and looking back on what was called the Great Crash of 1987. [i] funny but it does not now feel like such a great crash now. but at the time it was seen as very bad. which it was.

I also love reading History books. But like to read them mostly on holiday.

by ROB Thu Aug 02, 2012 5:53 am

I wish someone would invent Hush Puppies so I could quiet my aching dogs and go to school and learn to read.

by KnarkyBadger Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:57 am

I'm currently reading "Here comes everybody" James Fearnley's excellent autobiography of The Pogues. Also reading Homege to Catalonia by Orwell.

by ROB Thu Aug 02, 2012 6:42 pm

Hawaii, James Michener, Shogun, James Clavell, The Godfather, Mario Puzo, are three lengthy books that, once started, I couldn’t put down until finished. Michener also wrote a book about the Afrikaners, The Covenant, I believe, that ranks right below these three in the “need to finish it” category.

by boatlady Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:59 am

last time I was on holiday I read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - not the first time I've read it and it won't be the last.
Robert Tressell's account of political events in his own particular place and time remains as valid today as it was then, in my opinion.

by oftenwrong Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:40 am

I apologise for following a question with another one, but there are now at least four types of e-book Reader on the market and I wonder whether anyone has had time to evaluate them in use.

The reading-list already available obviously includes all the Classics, which are out of copyright, but my preoccupation is with Publishers' natural desire to wring the maximum profit from a title. Is that going to mean that some e-books will only be readable on a particular machine?

by boatlady Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:28 pm

I have a Kindle - works fine - also have a piece of free software called Calibre which came with a CD I bought via Ebay, which reformats books which aren't immediately compatible.
Using it is a faff, but if you're computer savvy it shouldn't present too many problems

by **moonbeam** Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:43 pm

I usually like to read "fluff", so I can escape reality for a while. I like mysteries and thrillers, or smarmy romance novels. I'll read articles or reviews as they pertain to other things I'm interested in.

I have a Kindle Fire, which I got because I knew my son would also like to play games on it. I have never purchased a book for it. I found that I can download books from my library to it, though the selection is pretty small still. Also, Amazon did previously have a "Top 100 Free" List of books, so I downloaded from there as well. I don't see that now when I visit the store, however.

by oftenwrong Thu Aug 30, 2012 5:20 pm

Thanks, friends. I can't get my head around the idea of (e.g.) Apple offering anything which doesn't make them a handsome profit.

by **moonbeam** Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:33 pm

The one thing I wish is that the Kindle Fire had the ability to switch back and forth between wireless and 3G. When I'm at work and realize I forgot to download any new material, I'm out of luck because I can't connect to our wireless network w/o a password. If I could switch to 3G, it'd be no problem.

Oh well. I knew that when I bought it.

by oftenwrong Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:47 pm

The difficulty of an "early-adopter" is that today's hot must-have gizmo will be replaced by something we've never heard of by next week. Digital cameras and Credit Cards are being replaced by mobile phones, which themselves are being used for texting rather than conversations, but not for watching telly on the go as predicted.
Most Readers will have at home floppy-disks, a VHS tape recorder, maybe a cassette player, a dead analog TV and perhaps a computer that runs on Windows 95. Wouldn't it be nice to have all that money to spend over again?

by boatlady Fri Aug 31, 2012 1:03 pm

re Kindle free books - they are alive and well - just look at the 'best sellers' lists - there is a list of free best sellers alongside the 'paid for' ones - you can even browse by subject matter.
I like a bit of fluff meself

by oftenwrong Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:05 pm

Oo-err, Missus. Shocked

by **moonbeam** Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:05 pm

Thanks, boatlady! I guess they just changed their format a bit.

by boatlady Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:08 pm

my pleasure - hope you find lots of free goodies

by oftenwrong Sun Sep 02, 2012 10:32 pm

Is it true that the suppliers of e-book Readers maintain control over the contents and can literally suck the downloads back after a period of time?

by boatlady Mon Sep 03, 2012 1:08 pm

goodness, I don't think so - they do keep an online archive of everything I've bought on Amazon, so I suppose in theory they could, if I happened to be online - but why would they want to?

by Beth fph Sun Sep 09, 2012 3:34 am

This summer, I read Nelson DeMille's The Lion and enjoyed it. It is the sequel to The Lion's Game, which was very good, too.

Then, I thought I might read 50 Shades of Gray, but I have problems reading poorly written books, so couldn't stay with it.

by Beth fph Sun Sep 09, 2012 3:43 am

oftenwrong wrote:The difficulty of an "early-adopter" is that today's hot must-have gizmo will be replaced by something we've never heard of by next week. Digital cameras and Credit Cards are being replaced by mobile phones, which themselves are being used for texting rather than conversations, but not for watching telly on the go as predicted.
Most Readers will have at home floppy-disks, a VHS tape recorder, maybe a cassette player, a dead analog TV and perhaps a computer that runs on Windows 95. Wouldn't it be nice to have all that money to spend over again?

My husband has an iPad with a Kindle ap. I'm not sure I'll enjoy reading that way - tend to be attached to my paper and ink books - but think I'll download something from Amazon and see how it goes. One of my eyes does not adjust well to bright light so it will be a way to see whether eBooks will work for me.

by Boudica Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:33 pm

I have a Kindle and I use it to re-read novels that I've already read but I prefer to read new books on paper. It msut be the English teacher in me :-)

I always take a few new novels on holiday - last time it was Solar and The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan, Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Partisan's Daughter by Louis de Berniere.

Before we had children, the husband and I used to take 10 books each on holiday and get through our own and each other's selections!

I seldom read political books on holiday, prefering to get away from it for a while. Smile

by boatlady Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:20 pm

I wonder if people would like a thread just to generally chat about their current reading and share opinions etc with others?
Rather than start a thread for every book, which is maybe a bit intimidating for someone who reads mostly for pleasure - seems a bit presumptuous to start a new thread for ' What ho Jeeves' or something of the sort, but maybe there's lots of P G Wodehouse fiends out there who'd like nothing better than to talk about the Jeeves books.

Anyway, today I'm reading a novel by Eric Morecambe called Mr Lonely - never even knew Eric Morecambe had written anything. I'm not sure how good it is, and it's generally of it's era - racist, sexist etc. but quite engaging if you can 'tune out' all that sort of stuff. I enjoyed Eric Morcambe as a comedian, and some of that voice comes through (as I suppose is natural) in his writing.

Before that, I was wading my way through some of the lesser known works of EF Benson - lots of turgid stuff from the period just before the 1st World War, which is quite an interesting historical period.

Anyway, if anyone feels they'd like to chip in with their current reading and thoughts thereon, here's a thread ready to do it.

study

by oftenwrong Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:42 pm

There exists a profitable sideline for professional writers in "ghosting" the autobiographies of celebrities enjoying the limelight.

With variable results. If anyone has spent hard cash on a collection of anecdotes, hagiography and repetition, we should all be grateful to have a warning. Thanks.

by boatlady Thu Jun 06, 2013 6:50 pm

No, it is definitely a novel and is definitely accredited to Eric Morecambe.
I really don't believe it's ghost written - reminds me rather of those interesting but ultimately rather second rate novels (genuinely) written by Mae West back in the '20's

by oftenwrong Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:16 pm

written by Mae West back in the '20's

You must be older than you look, boatlady.

by boatlady Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:10 pm

Well. I'm certainly a bit older than that very tasty avatar - probably late '70's or '80's vintage that lady.
The novels by Mae West were in the public library and I encountered them in my late teens, when they were already historical fiction.

by boatlady Tue Jul 02, 2013 3:16 pm

http://t.co/xyk0cXm2Lw

links to an exerpt from The Unmaking of Man by Simon Duffy - a history of the Nazi solution for disabled people.
Little simple story - seems the book will be interesting and may give some insights about the current political situation

study

by oftenwrong Tue Jul 02, 2013 7:27 pm

Don't believe everything you see on twitter.

by boatlady Wed Jul 03, 2013 12:32 pm

by boatlady Mon Aug 05, 2013 8:25 am

Revisiting an old favourite this week - Susan Howatch. Anyone out there familiar with her work?
I find her an intriguing author and have particularly enjoyed her Church of England series of novels (I know, sounds dull) which span the 20th century through the experiences of a series of Church of England clergy, their friends and family.
The narrative style can be a bit clunky, but I love the way she weaves in bits of theology and philosophical ideas that are concurrent with the action of the novels.

by oftenwrong Mon Aug 05, 2013 9:44 am

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7419.John_Galsworthy

A useful springboard.

by boatlady Mon Aug 05, 2013 2:10 pm

Interesting web site.
Not totally sure how it works

by Dan Fante Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:19 am

Yeah, Goodreads is good for recommending other authors and so on. Boatlady, the site itself isn't all that intuitive but the help is good for explaining things. I've just finished (re-) reading The Wasp Factory and I'm reading The Terracotta Dog - the second in the Inspector Montalbano series, which are crime novels set in Sicily which focus on the food and the culture more than police procedure.

by oftenwrong Wed Oct 16, 2013 11:34 am

Many of us can remember going to see a movie of a favourite book, with mixed results.

Do you have a recollection of a truly awful rendering, or perhaps a happy experience of an entertaining transition from page to screen?

(I'm still awaiting a satisfying film treatment of Alice in Wonderland, which has been attempted 20 times since 1903.)

by Dan Fante Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:35 pm

oftenwrong wrote:Many of us can remember going to see a movie of a favourite book, with mixed results.

Do you have a recollection of a truly awful rendering, or perhaps a happy experience of an entertaining transition from page to screen?

(I'm still awaiting a satisfying film treatment of Alice in Wonderland, which has been attempted 20 times since 1903.)

The TV miniseries version of The Shining starring Rebecca De Mournay was an horrific adaptation of a good book, probably made worse by the original film being so good too.

by tlttf Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:25 pm

Agree about The Shining Dan, excellent book and difficult to put down. I've just bought the continuation regarding young Danny as he grows older Doctor Sleep also by Stephen King and I'm hoping to start it this weekend.

I own a kindle which is a fantastic piece of kit, I've never actually bought a book from Amazon as I was given a CD with 000's of titles on it and I think it's gonna take a while to get through them, lot's of different authors, OW there's a programme out there called moby which will adapt the writing to kindle format so allows you to read most things. Now I can take untold books on holiday without worrying about being overweight on the luggage.

by oftenwrong Wed Oct 16, 2013 5:55 pm

How much longer does Jeff Bezos need before his company takes over from all other retailers? (Rhetorical question)

by boatlady Wed Oct 16, 2013 7:00 pm

Who's Jeff Bezos?

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