Monday, July 09, 2007

Holiday Reading

Here is my list with scores out of ten. First score represents total enjoyment and escapism into a different world. Second mark is the quality of the book (IMHO) as literature:

Perfume, Patrick Suskind 8/8
I'm Not Scared, Niccolò Ammanati 8/8
The Contortionoist's Handbook, Craig Cleverer 6/7
Millennium People, J.G.Ballard 7/8
The Broker, John Grisham 9/5
The Testament of Gideon Mack, James Robertson 8/9
The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy 7/6
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote 8/8
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer 9/9
Arthur and George, Julian Barnes 8/8
Nature Girl, Carl Hiaasen 9/6

Very fortunate to have been in the company of such good writing. I normally only bring back those books which I think I may look at again or lend to friends. This time I brought all of them back except Grisham and Ellroy which I have left at the holiday home for future guests.

3 comments:

Mike Peatman said...

I thought Arthur & George was pretty goot, too. Glad you enjoyed it.

David Keen said...

Did you sleep, eat, do anything else except read? I managed 1 1/2 books and a few Sudoku's in 14 days. Saving myself for Harry Potter.

Steve Tilley said...

It's amazing how much time you have on holiday when there are only two of you again withiout dependents (and we were away for 16 days).

Typical day:

7.45 Someone makes coffee then read in bed for an hour
9.00 Breakfast, wash and dress
10.00 Go out sight-seeing, shopping for food.
11.00 Coffee in cafe somewhere
12.00 Return to base and sit by pool and read, or head for beach and read
1.00 Lunch, snooze etc
2.00 Lazing, swimming, reading, chatting, break for tea and biscuits then repeat.
6.00 Shower, change and sit on balcony with a drink. Then either make meal or go out to restaurant. On return watch news on CNN or Euronews then go to bed.

Probably 4 or 5 hours reading a day which means about 200/250 pages of a novel.