Holiday reading

John

Ok, I've got a three week holiday coming up where I'll have lots of reading time and I want some reading suggestions. Just to give you an idea of what I'm into, here's what I have put aside for the holiday so far:

Goethe - Faust
Cynthia True - American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story
Daniel Defoe - A Journal of the Plague Year
Tolkien - History of Middle Earth 5 and 6
Simon Reynolds - Rip it up and start again: Postpunk 1978-1984
Stephen Hawking - On The Shoulders of Giants
Antony Beevor - Stalingrad
Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Most of these are kind of heavy going, any more light hearted/less brain intensive books that anyone can recommend? Or books along the same lines that I'm missing out on?

Dagnir Glaurung

Tolkien - History of Middle Earth 5 and 6

Ouch. They make my head hurt with their dryness at times. Still, of the ones I've read they're all good choices. Oscar Wilde isn't heavy going so dip into him when you feel as if you want to kill Tolkien.

eclectichoney

James Frey's autiobiog is really pacey, a great great read, very interesting and the fact that it *actually* happened is always a bonus. Ye can't go wrong with a good biography i reckon. it's about him trying to give up drink/drugs after being seriously addicted, but it's about a lot more than that really.

jaysus man, ye'll need a case just for all the books

nesf

Antony Beevor - Stalingrad

Fantastic book. His other one on the fall of Berlin is also a very good read. Narrative history at it's best imo.


Personally I like to take some Terry Pratchett (or similar) with me on holidays for some light reading when my concentration is low or when I need a laugh.

But if you've an "always high" concentration level then you're a lucky bastard!

John

Dagnir Glaurung wrote:

Tolkien - History of Middle Earth 5 and 6

Ouch. They make my head hurt with their dryness at times. Still, of the ones I've read they're all good choices. Oscar Wilde isn't heavy going so dip into him when you feel as if you want to kill Tolkien.

It's taken me two years to get through the first four, I'm being ambitious taking two of them with me.

eclectichoney wrote:

James Frey's autiobiog is really pacey, a great great read, very interesting and the fact that it *actually* happened is always a bonus. Ye can't go wrong with a good biography i reckon. it's about him trying to give up drink/drugs after being seriously addicted, but it's about a lot more than that really.

jaysus man, ye'll need a case just for all the books

I'll have a look for the Frey autobiography. I've no idea who he is but if it's as good as you say, I don't think I need to know. As for all the books, it's a three week relaxing holiday in the middle of the countryside in France. Books are essential, better too many than too few

nesf wrote:

Antony Beevor - Stalingrad

Fantastic book. His other one on the fall of Berlin is also a very good read. Narrative history at it's best imo.


Personally I like to take some Terry Pratchett (or similar) with me on holidays for some light reading when my concentration is low or when I need a laugh.

But if you've an "always high" concentration level then you're a lucky bastard!

I read Berlin last year, it was stunning. I was looking for his Paris book but I couldn't find it aywhere. As for Pratchett, my girlfriend will be bringing a rake of them so I won't need to get any. I've never really gotten into him so I'm going to give him another go this year.

Tiersal

Two good Pop science books:

Dava Sobel: Longitude. Very very good book for charting the difficulties of early navigation and how it was solved in the 1700's by a clock maker!!

Steven Pinker: How the mind works. All you need to know about how little we know about the complexity of the human brain. Almost easy to read, which was good enough. Fascinating.

The two above were easier to read than Steven Hawkins, A Brief History of Time, although I haven't read On The Shoulders of Giants. let us know how you get on.

cecilwinthorpe

read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

sleepwalker

Hunter S Thompson - The Rum Diaries

8 books for 3 weeks seems ridiculously ambitous though

John

sleepwalker wrote:

8 books for 3 weeks seems ridiculously ambitous though

I went through 15 in less than two weeks last year

nesf

John2 wrote:

I went through 15 in less than two weeks last year

Hmmm. I can read "commuter fiction" at a rate of more than a book a day when on holidays or travelling. Or just when bored enough. But that's because I don't need to concentrate in order to follow the story.

Stalingrad isn't readable in a day though. If you read it in a day you haven't absorbed it. If you know what I mean.

Eve e

Tiersal wrote:

Two good Pop science books:


Steven Pinker: How the mind works. All you need to know about how little we know about the complexity of the human brain. Almost easy to read, which was good enough. Fascinating.

Agreed easy(ish) to read without being too dumbed down.

A more lightweight one I found funny was Donal Ruane's: Tales In a Rearview mirror

John

nesf wrote:

Stalingrad isn't readable in a day though. If you read it in a day you haven't absorbed it. If you know what I mean.

I don't know, I've always been a fast reader. Got through Berlin fairly sharpish.

Thanks for all the suggestions folks, although on my trip to the bookshop today I either

a) forgot the titles of some of the books

or

b) couldn't find them




So I got the following:

Douglas Adams - The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths

Stephen Pinker - How the Mind Works

Edward O. Wilson - The Diversity of Life

Armans Marie Leroi - Mutants

Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls

H.P. Lovecraft - The Haunter of the Dark

upmayo

Its like Chocolat and Under The Tuscan Sun with an Irish/Persian feel!

nesf

John2 wrote:

I don't know, I've always been a fast reader. Got through Berlin fairly sharpish.

*shrugs*

My whole take on it is not how many books you can cram into a week, or the "weight" of the material, the only thing that matters is that you enjoy yourself

My personal taste for a weeks reading would be a mix of "textbooks", heavy reading and a few nice fast paced pulp novels for variety.

Then again, I'm the kind of person who likes to have 4/5 books on the go at once. It's rare for me to just read "one" book straight unless it's light fiction.

I do however reserve the right to point and laugh at a guy avidly reading Mills and Boon....

Griffon

Try reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown it is brilliant! Or the Da vinci code

John

Griffon wrote:

Try reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown it is brilliant! Or the Da vinci code

I've read the Da Vinci Code. I won't be reading any more books by Dan Brown.

nesf

John2 wrote:

I've read the Da Vinci Code. I won't be reading any more books by Dan Brown.

Actually I found Digital Fortress just helped to reinforce my opinion on him. I hate to decide on an author based on a single book. I like to give them a second or third chance.

John

I don't know, I don't mind a no brainer to relax but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Executive Steve

the time traveller's wife by audrey nieffenberger! its absolutely fantastic!

brian greene - the elegant universe

ryszard kapuczinzki - the emperor [brilliant account of the last days of haile selassie's reing]

enjoy the simon reynolds! havent read "rip it up and start it again, but "energy flash" is like a BIBLE to me. his blog is wicked too, if you're REALLY nerdy about music!