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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

What constitutes a holiday read?

30/7/2017

6 Comments

 
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Now that I rarely go away, I tend to forget that normal people go on holiday in the summer. Now that I read well over 100 novels a year, I also forget that holidays are when most people pick up a book or e-reader. But at this time of year I can’t help noticing that both the broadsheet weekend supplements and the blogosphere abound with holiday reading recommendations, which got me wondering what constitutes a holiday read?

I remember the pleasure at the end of exams as an undergraduate scouring the shelves of the English Lit section of the university library that, for the rest of the year, I considered out of bounds. I remember rereading The Power and the Glory in Ecuador and A Passage to India in Bangalore. My love of Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin stems as much from the place I read it as the excellent writing: hiding from the heat in a chalet in the Etosha National Park in Namibia in the afternoon, half-dozing from an early morning game drive. (Indeed, so strong is that memory, I’ve told you a version of that story before!)
 
But I have also made some rather odd holiday reading choices: ploughing through Hobsbawm’s The Age of Capital between swims in the Seychelles and Moby Dick between treks in Patagonia. (In my defence, we were going whale watching.) I must have thought the reduction in stress through escaping work created the ideal conditions to tackle something more challenging; those of a less puritanical persuasion might choose to enhance the relaxed mood by reading something light.


When I first thought of posting on this topic, inspired by
Charli’s comment that she was saving my novel, Underneath, for the beach, I thought I ought to include some holiday reading recommendations. But, as the above suggests, other than matching the book setting with a holiday destination, something The Book Trail manages better than I can, it’s not my strong suit. Perhaps I should work out what holiday means first.

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Nevertheless, I’ve had a bash and come up with eight novels with some kind of holiday connection. Working left to right in the above not-as-sharp-as-it-should-be shelfie, this review of The Rocks comes with the bonus of links to two other Mallorca-set novels, The Lemon Grove and The Vacationers. Then we move to the much chillier English seaside with a novel set in a Morecambe guesthouse and a darkly humorous novel featuring a trip to the south coast. Of the two novels on tourism I reviewed last month, The South in Winter, about revising a guidebook, is the lighter read. From there, you might want to visit a holiday villa in the Catskills or stay at home with the residents of Breathed, Ohio, during a devilishly hot summer. If you’re not one for the heat, or visiting family is your holiday thing, how about a farm in Northern Ireland? My final suggestion features an epic road trip which, although not strictly a holiday, does afford narrator Alex a break from school. You’ll find more (in an older post I’d forgotten about when I started this) via this link, but don’t get lost. I want to know what defines a holiday read for you.

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Meanwhile, July’s reviews have taken me to India, the Netherlands, Berlin, Zambia, Ireland, South Africa and a mythical place that may not exist on any map. (I don’t count Britain as I’m already here!) If you fancy plucking one of these thirteen novels from my virtual shelf, click on the image to be transported to the reviews.
Holiday writing, or travel writing in general, relies on luscious language with evocative words such as crystalline. Rock-fanatic Charli Mills has laid down the challenge to write a 99-word story containing the word crystalline. I’ve failed miserably as I’ve failed to define a holiday read, but I hope you agree that my contribution is fun.

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Marriage guidance
 
Leaving the divorce court, Jack crossed the road to the pub. His sister was a good listener but, having helped him pick up the pieces after three failed marriages, her patience was wearing thin. “You keep ending up with women who are just like you,” said Jill. “But sometimes opposites rub along best.”
 
“I should look for the ying to my yang? But I’m Mr Average. Everyone shares my tastes.”
 
“I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine.” She beckoned to a woman who’d been leaning on the bar. “Jack Spratt meet Crystal. Crystal Lean meet Jack.”

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
Norah Colvin link
1/8/2017 11:53:44 am

Hi Anne, I love your flash. Hilarious, and very clever. Of course it appeals to me with its nursery rhyme connection.
As for holiday reads. I don't know that I ever thought of holidays as reading time, but I do remember thinking that, when I finished work about to birth Bec, I'd have lots of time for reading. Sadly that's when my reading started to slip. Nowadays I don't give myself a holiday. Perhaps I really should! I haven't holidayed in enough exciting places to read a book about each. Though I do remember reading one about Paris before I visited Paris a while ago. Maybe that counts!

Reply
Annecdotist
2/8/2017 04:52:12 pm

Thanks, Norah, haven’t you had a holiday? I know you’ve travelled a fair bit in the few years I’ve known you. But I wonder if, like me, you feel you need one less when you’re doing your own thing.
I pity anyone holidaying in the UK right now as the weather’s extremely dreary – something about the Gulfstream being in the wrong place.
Had to smile at your thought that having a baby would give you lots of time to yourself.
Anyway, glad you liked the flash. I wondered whether others less in tune with nursery rhymes would get it, but I wait to find out.

Reply
D. Avery link
3/8/2017 01:30:50 am

Berry punny, that flash. Perhaps this one will last.
All I know is time is going fast and my stack of reading is still stacked. I've read shamefully little this summer. I need less escape through reading while on vacation, so any novel reading gets done during the school year. Short stories and poetry suits me during vacation as I keep jumping about starting different projects or entertainments. So much to do!

Reply
Annecdotist
3/8/2017 12:41:17 pm

That’s an interesting perspective, keeping your novel reading for the end of the working day. Sounds like you’re having an interesting summer with lots going on. Hope it continues to excite you.

Reply
Charli Mills
3/8/2017 03:57:39 am

Books are like rocks -- I want to pick them all up, but I have to learn to be more discerning at the source or else my pockets fill up. Going on holiday does focus my attention on one or two or three reads, but living on wheels for a year broke that pattern. I'm curious if others feel their taste in holiday reads have changed, or if what one's sense of escape into a book means. After reading your post I was amused to come across this article in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/books/review/match-book-travel-self-discovery.html Great humor in your flash, Anne. It is certainly delightful!

Reply
Annecdotist
3/8/2017 12:47:51 pm

I see that connection, Charli, but I’m much more interested in filling the shelves with books than my pockets with rocks. But you can’t do that if you’ve no space for shelves.
Interesting indeed to speculate on how our tastes in holiday reading change with our concept of holidays themselves.
Thanks for the link – now I am envious of the Match Book Doctor, my ideal job.

Reply



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