It’s summertime—finally!—and you’re heading out on holiday. The tickets are booked, the car’s in great shape, the cruise plans are sorted or the hiking trails are all mapped out. But, wait! Have you chosen the perfect book to take along on your vacation? If not, no worries, because we have some great suggestions for you. Whether you’ll be road tripping through the U.S. or backpacking around Europe or just sitting on your butt on a white beach somewhere (lucky you), we have some strong opinions about the reading materials you should bring along on your journey. Read on, Macduff.
1. Family Beach Holiday. A lazy vacation on the beach requires a book that doesn’t require you to think too much, but instead entertains and maybe pulls on the heartstrings. Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals is a perfect beach read. When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. What follows is a funny, heartwarming account of the family’s quirky experiences with the other inhabitants of the island—not all of them human. Told with wit, humor and beautiful detail, this book will have you chuckling as you sip your fruity beach drink.
2. European Backpacking Tour. Europe in the summer is a delight, but depending on the how many countries you’re planning to backpack through, it can also leave your mind awhirl. There are a couple of books, however, that will make this unpredictable travel much more fun. Bill Byrson’s Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe is a really funny account of Bryson’s journeys through Europe, from Scandinavia to Germany to Istanbul, when he was young. And Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull is an Aussie’s memoir of her relocation to the City of Light to be with a Frenchman she’s fallen in love with. Take these books along for the ride and you won’t regret it.
3. Solo Vacation. A holiday on your own can be amazingly rewarding and fun, but also a little lonely at times. A book that will keep you company and and empathize with your solitude is Pico Iyer’s classic Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of The World. An evocative and charming tour of the loneliest places on earth, the book is a wonderful read for anyone braving world travel on their own. And when you’re going solo, why not add to the little frisson of fear one can feel in a hotel room in a new country? The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman is a supernatural fairy tale that offers the perfect mixture of dark humor and dread, so lock the hotel doors before reading in bed.
4. Mobile Home Holiday. Nothing beats exploring new places while retaining the comforts of living in your own home. Why not get a taste of the exotic while on your own turf? Get to know a completely different cultures via detective fiction. Read Norway’s Jo Nesbo (The Snowman), Japan’s Keigo Higashino (The devotion of suspect X) or India’s Vish Puri (The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken). You’ll sharpen your detective skills while, at the same time, feel like you visited three continents—and got three vacations for the price of one.
5. Adventure Travel Vacation. Even an adrenaline junkie needs some downtime. If you’re setting out a grueling hiking expedition, here’s a book to complement the majesty of nature around you: 100 Poems by 100 Poets: An Anthology by Harold Pinter. To kill time on a long trip, playwright Pinter and two friends challenged themselves to pick the 100 most representative poems written in English (excluding living poets). Ranging from the formal love poems of John Skelton to the lacerating confessions of Sylvia Plath, their choices offer an eclectic and fun snapshot into several centuries of the art. Read this compelling and romantic anthology by candlelight, after a long day of scaling mountains.
6. Spa Retreat. As your body is enjoying rejuvenation, so can your mind. A great book to bring along on a spa holiday would be The Dalai Lama’s Cat by David Michie. Humor and spirituality don’t often exist in such perfect unison, but they do in this lovely little story, told from the perspective of a self-described “gorgeous Himalayan” who was rescued by the Dalai Lama’s staff and has, of course, picked up many nuggets of Buddhism wisdom. Another beautifully spiritual pick is Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, an imaginative and thought-provoking story of a 16-year-old boy and his magical relationship with animals.
7. Trip to the Exotic East. Asia is fascinating and crazy all at once and will be a lot to take in, especially if you’re a first-time traveler to those parts. A great read on this adventure will be How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid. Written as a mimicry of a self-help book, this bildungsroman is a fascinating insight into the new face of Asia. As a contrast, you might want to bring along Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, in which a baby in England is born to die, and be reborn, and then die again—again and again. Atkinson shuffles a dazzling array of alternative existences for her heroine, who might just change the fate of the world.
8. The Staycation. If you’re staying home this summer, you’ve made a great choice too. Settle down in your most comfortable spot with food and drink on hand and dive into some old favorites and some new ones: Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight, the story of a single mother who reconstructs her teenage daughter’s life—sifting through her emails, texts and social media to piece together the shocking truth about her last days of life—is gripping and unputdownable. Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, in which Paul Theroux retraces some of his journeys from the Great Railway Bazaar, will take you to places near and far without requiring you to move an inch. Also read Bill Bryson’s At Home: A Short History of Private Life for a fun-filled, informative look at the history and science behind every room in the modern home.
Tell us: Where are you off to this summer, and what’s your favorite holiday read?
