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Very soon I will be packing my suitcase and jetting off on a much longed-for holiday in the sun. The fact that summer has completely bypassed London this year, coupled with my manic work schedule, means I am counting down the days until I can lie by a swimming pool with a stack of books and some long cool drinks to keep me company.

But I have a problem.

Which books should I take with me?

At last count I had about 120 unread novels in storage. Many of those are acquisitions made this year, but a high proportion were accumulated prior to this. Long-time devotees of this blog will know I made a New Year's resolution to read 50 books in 2007 from my original TBR pile (ie. books acquired prior to January 1 this year), but my efforts have been rather lack-lustre. At last count I'd only read 17 from this list. But I'd like to address this a little on my holiday.

Here's the list as it currently stands:

As It Is In Heaven by Niall Williams
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
American Pyscho by Brett Easton Ellis
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
A Fringe of Leaves by Patrick White
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Blood Ties by Jennifer Lash
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevksy
Cloud Atlas by David
Death in Summer by William Trevor
Death Du Jour by Kathy Reichs
Detour by James Siegel
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
Dubliners by James Joyce
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Coer
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Fiesta - The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
Independent People by Halldor Laxness
Junky by William S. Burroughs
Kingdom Come by J.G. Ballard
Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh
Lady Chatterley's Lover  by D.H. Lawrence
Memorial by Bruce Wagner
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by Peter Hoeg
Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Other Paths to Glory by Anthony Price
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Our Sunshine by Robert Drewe
Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital
Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
Primary Colours by Anonymous
Roseanna by Maj Sowall and Per Wahloo
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
Something Fresh by PG Wodehouse
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
The Assassin by Liam O'Flaherty
The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh
The Cold Six Thousand  by James Ellroy
The Crimson Petal & The White by Michael Faber
The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Hamilton Case by Michelle de Kretser
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
The Jesus Man by Christos Tsiolkas
The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The People's Act of Love by James Meek
The Pornographer by John McGahern
The Possibility of an Island by Michel Hoellebecq
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
The Ravenscroft Dynasty by Barbara Taylor Bradford
The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken
The Seducer by Jan Kjaerstad
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Silence of the Rain by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
The Silent People by Walter Macken
The Statement by Brian Moore
The Twenty-Seventh City  by Jonathan Franzen
The Turn of the Screw & The Aspern Papers  (in one volume) by Henry James
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty  by Sebastian Barry
Truecrime by Jake Arnott
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Walking into the Night  by Olaf Olafsson
What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
Whitechapell, Scarlet Tracings by Iain Sinclair
Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Any recommendations from the above? If you could pack five in your suitcase, which would you take? Alternatively, please feel free to name any I should steer clear of -- I do realise I have a penchant for dark fiction and I don't want to get too depressed while basking in warmer climes!

Comments

[Heather]

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

That one is on my MUST READ list.

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

B/c I like the title.

Lady Chatterly bored me to tears.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

B/c I want to read her. Any woman named George scores points in my book.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

It was WONDERFUL!

Only take Wicked by Gregory Maguire if you are into munchkin p0rn. ;)

[suki]

Alienist-- a gripping escape
read sort of a beach book

Middlemarch--I LOVE George Eliot and this is her finest but it is also long and slow and filled with lots of characters.

Great Excpectations--Can't do better than Dickens for a great escape, jerking a few tears and great characters.

Graham Greene--I love him too but this is not a light writer. Serous, sometimes with religious tendancies.

Passage to India--realize I have mostly chosen "classics". Forster is marvelous esp. my favorite "Howard's End" which I've read a # of times, seen the movie a # of times and listened to the bk on tape innumerable times.

[Cere]

Crime & Punishment
A Passage to India
Handmaid's Tale
The Fountainhead
Wicked

[Cere]

Crime & Punishment
A Passage to India
Handmaid's Tale
The Fountainhead
Wicked

[Isabel]

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

These are shorter works, but it will still get you thinking.

[De Scribe]

My recommendations, in no particular order:
1. Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence - one of the most evocative books I've read.
2. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett - definitive American crime fiction.
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - you need a vacation to concentrate enough to read this classic.
4. Wicked by Gregory McGuire - intriguing, interesting, pleasant notwithstanding the possibilities to make it dark.
5. Something Fresh by P G Wodehouse - what's a holiday without a bit of Wodehouse?

[Julia]

Cloud Atlas
The Handmaid's Tale
The Hamilton Case
On Beauty
Middlemarch

It's a good mixture of cultures, settings, periods and styles with none too dark for a holiday.
I'm just finishing Cloud Atlas now and I highly recommend it - It's a brick, but not a struggle, and very very clever (occasionally bordering on too clever) especially in structure.

Alternatively - choose your books by weight. Excess baggage charges are a bitch.

[Kirsty]

I would choose...

The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell)
On Beauty (Zadie Smith)
Amsterdam (Ian McEwan)
The Twenty Seventh City (Jonathan Franzen)

I would avoid like the PLAGUE:

Junky (William Burroughs)
American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis)
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist (Robert Tressell -- not because it's bad, it's not, but it ain't holiday reading. Dave it for winter!)

[Kirsty]

... or, in fact, *save* it for winter... :)

[nutmeg]

1. CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE
2. CLOUD ATLAS
3. MIDDLEMARCH
4. Our Mutual Friend
5. Shadow of the Wind

The first three are a must :-)

And I definitely would avoid Oyster by Janet Turner Hospital. We read it for bookclub yonks ago and we all pretty much disliked it to the point of turning every one of us off her other books for life!

[genevieve]

The Statement Slaughterhouse Five
Crime and Punishment Dubliners
Cloud Atlas
The Turn of the Screw/The Aspern Papers.
Plenty for a very classy holiday, you'll laugh, you'll be deeply moved, you'll be frightened out of your wits, and the Mitchell is completely delightful in every possible way.

[genevieve]

Pfft. The punctuation is messy there.
Should read:
1. The Statement
2. Slaughterhouse Five
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Cloud Atlas
5. The Turn of the Screw etc.
Sorry about that...:)

[genevieve]

hehe and I can't count either!!!

[Kinuk]

I would chose:

The Handmaid's Tale
The Dark Room
Cloud Atlas
The Alienist
Amsterdam

The first two are a bit dark, so might not be great "on the beach" reading, but the last 3 should fit the bill. I know you started Cloud Atlas, so you know what that one's like. The Alienist is a nice mystery and Amsterdam is a good, quick read. Plus, it's Ian McEwan!

Enjoy your reading and enjoy your holiday!

[Rebecca Moldover]

The Man in The Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson....as pertinent today as it was when written...I would also explore this authors other works...for the beach " Away From It All"...and perhaps his best book of all, "Ice Brothers"....disclaimer...I'm one of the author's daughters, and can attest that his books were written by someone who felt privileged to be able to "get up in the morning and just play with words".......Becka Moldover

[Kristen]

Hi! I can't resist chiming in to recommend Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow -- beautifully written and thought-provoking, one of the books I take to school every year to reread. Also, Wicked is not only a great book, but a great vacation/poolside book. Have a happy holiday!

[Kisane]

My choices would be:
1. The Name of the Rose
2. Turn of the Screw
3. Something Fresh
4. Crimson Petal and the White
5. Buy something from the airport bookshop!

Have fun!!

[Cricket]

Jamaica Inn
The House On The Strand
Gone With The Wind
Tom Sawyer
The Human Comedy
Of Mice And Men
Watership Down
The Pearl

My personal favorites are spy thrillers. I love Frederick Forsythe.

[Louise]

I've read and enjoyed the following:

If nobody speaks of remarkable things - great book and beautifully written

Crimson Petal and the White - I enjoyed this book so much - one of those books that you really miss when you've finished it

Middlemarch - good but a long read

Another two books that I'd recommend are:

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult

Have a great holiday!

[DeadGoodBooks]

Fight Club Lady Chatterley's Lover
The Crimson Petal & The White
The Handmaid's Tale
The Shadow of the Wind

If I had to pick one it would have to be The Crimson Petal - a fantastic read that you will be able to get stuck into.

[Patricia]

I would say...

On Beauty
Great Expectations
A Clockwork Orange
Slaughterhouse 5
The Statement

Not exactly light beach reads, but excellent books, all of them. In my humble opinion.

[kitchen hand]

Read them in alphabetical order as listed.

If you try to cherry pick, the ones you least 'prefer' will remain unread and you'll never get to the end of the list.

[12jan]

On the basis that it's a holiday in the sun, I must say the following:

1. Norwegian Wood - excellent, disgestable read. Beautifully written.
2. Name of the Rose - one the best written thrillers ever published. Puts the pulpier stuff to shame.
3. Middlemarch - this really makes up for 2 novels. Sooo good and engrossing.
4. Fiesta - The only one of Hemingway's I truly love and could read again and again. You must also check out "A Moveable Feast" which is really autobiographical. Good holiday read also.
5. What I have loved. Well written, female focus, intelligent and consumable.

[Danielle]

Wow--It looks like you've gotten lots of suggestions! I've read Drowning Ruth, which I liked a lot. Slightly dark, but not so much so that it would be depressing to take on vacation! The Maltese Falcon is very good--and very short and quick, which might be nice. I loved The Handmaid's Tale (I've read it at least three times) as well as The People's Act of Love (a nice wintery sort of book--it might be a nice contrast to sunny beaches). It's always fun and a little agonizing choosing vacation books. Whichever you choose have a great time!!

[Perry Middlemiss]

I don't reckon you can just choose five books off the stack without some ground rules in place first. Five books is your first, and, unfortunately your last rule.

I don't hold with the idea that you should only take "beach" books to the beach. You need a combination.

Something old, something new, something light and something heavy. That's only four but there will be crossovers. Also don't think you have to omit a book because the climate doesn't fit - it's quite a good idea to read a book set in the snow when you're lying in the sun - makes for a nice contrast.

So base your selections around the one all-time classic you've been meaning to read, say INDEPENDENT PEOPLE by Laxness. Let's admit it, you're not going to be able to get to it back home.

But that's a big hefty thing so you need something totally different - lightish in a different genre entirely; say, THE MALTESE FALCON by Hammett.

Time for a toughish modern classic for balance: CLOUD ATLAS by Mitchell should do the trick.

And then another lightish one for relief to remind you of home: OUR SUNSHINE by Drewe.

And finally, one that cuts across all categories (except for home): ARTHUR & GEORGE by Barnes.

But only five? If all you're doing is sitting under a beach umbrella you can surely aim for 1.5 per day. Skip the telly and the outings and make it 2. You'll come back refreshed.