So: you’ve chosen the date, the location, the lodgings, the transport, the wardrobe. There’s only one important decision left to make. Which books are you going to take on holiday with you?
For many people, holidays are the only time they get to lie down, relax and unwind with a good book. There’s nothing quite like finding the perfect view, soaking in the atmosphere, watching the world go by, and dipping in and out of a book. And you can open that same book years later and rediscover your holiday memories absorbed into the pages.
Holiday reads are often a different sort of book to those you might read in your spare time at home. As a rule, we like to read light, easy, untaxing novels on holiday, written in short chunks that are easy to break off from, with gripping, light-hearted or entertaining plots. A book we can really relax with, without having to concentrate too hard. It can be difficult to gauge a book from its cover, and it’s always disappointing to open up a book on holiday to discover that it really isn’t your cup of tea after all. So to make things a little easier for you, we’ve compiled a list of 10 great holiday reads for you to choose from. Sit back and enjoy your holiday!
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The Beach Alex Garland |
Alex Garland’s tense and compelling adventure novel was made into a film by Danny Boyle in 2000, but as is so often the case, the book is infinitely better than the film. The Beach 
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About a Boy Nick Hornby |
A warm, funny and perceptive novel about the unlikely relationship that develops between a cool, rich, shallow thirtysomething and a decidedly uncool, quirky, bullied 12-year-old boy. When serial cad Will Lightman strikes upon the idea of visiting a single parent group in order to pick up women, he finds rather more than he bargained for. At times hilarious, this engaging and mature exploration of human experiences is a classic feel-good story – and one of very few that will appeal to both men and women alike.
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Tell No One Harlan Coben |
Thrillers are the perfect holiday reading escape, and they don’t come much faster or edgier than Harlan Coben. David Beck’s wife Elizabeth was kidnapped and murdered eight years ago, and he was left for dead. But when an image of Elizabeth appears on his computer screen, David’s life is once more turned upsidedown as he is plunged into a desperate cat-and-mouse chase where nothing is as it seems and nobody can be trusted. An intelligent and terrifying narrative with twists and turns that will keep you guessing right until the end.
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The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith |
This, the first in the detective series quite unlike any other, introduces the reader to its rather unusual heroine. Precious Ramotswe is a size 22 African woman, who sells the cattle herd she has inherited from her father and uses the money to start a completely new life as Botswana’s first female private detective. It’s a gentle, humerous and affectionate novel written with a simple charm. With its delightful characters and intriguing plot, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
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The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown |
Few books have sparked as much controversy as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code
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Bridget Jones’ Diary Helen Fielding |
OK, this is one for the girls. A year in diary form tells the hilarious adventures of the delightfully flawed thirtysomething singleton as she works her way from one calamity to the next in her quest to find the perfect man. A novel that manages to be both satirical and warm-hearted, and both easy-reading and intelligent, it really is exceptionally funny.
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One Good Turn Kate Atkinson |
This deliciously dark and humerous murder mystery is a far cry from your standard detective novel. Set during the Edinburgh Festival, One Good Turn brilliantly twists together its apparently unrelated characters and plotlines into a seamless and beautifully-written narrative. The novel’s different viewpoints draw the reader effortlessly through an ingenious and fast-moving plot that will keep you guessing right up to the end.
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Dead Famous Ben Elton |
Ben Elton’s clever, thought-provoking take on the classic closed house whodunit is a uproarious parody of the hit-television series Big Brother. Whether you loved or loathed Big Brother, you simply cannot fail to be entertained by a novel that’s this much fun. On Day 27 of the programme, one of the housemates is killed live on television. Inspector Stanley Spencer Coleridge must sift his way through the perfect housemate caricatures in order to solve this seemingly impossible case.
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The Code of the Woosters Sir P G Wodehouse |
There’s no doubt that P.G.Wodehouse’s sublime brand of farcical slapstick will not appeal to everybody, but if a dose of perfect silliness in the company of the scatterbrained Bertie Wooster and his brilliant valet Jeeves sounds like your cup of tea, then you can’t go wrong with The Code of the Woosters. Packed to the brim with fun, frivolity and perfectly-crafted sentences that will make you laugh out loud, this is a gem of a novel.
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And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie Collection) Agatha Christie |
Agatha Christie has written 80 detective novels, and is the bestselling writer of books of all time. The Queen of Crime is renowned for her ingenious plots that have consistently baffled and entertained nearly a century’s worth of readers. And Then There Were None is a a classic whodunit and one of Agatha Christie’s undoubted masterpieces. 10 strangers are lured to and then stranded on an island. And it soon becomes all too apparent that one of them is a murderer… Sinister, atmospheric and utterly impossible.