The Holiday Book Dilemma

Wednesday is about writing. And books. Today it’s about reading - or trying to read - while on holiday. A difficult thing to achieve with all those books out there to buy!

I’m on holiday right now – as previously mentioned – and though I have become much better at not taking many books with me, I am no better when it comes to buying new books while away.

We buy books because we like to think we are buying the time to read them.

That line is one you see on coffee cups and tacky wall hangings. But it’s one of the deft observations of a privileged life.

I packed my Kindle – which has about 3000 books I’ll never read nestled in on it. I have about 18 things on the go that I flick and scroll between. Sometimes I’ll finish a book that I started three years ago. It’s usually non-fiction or poetry, so the big gap between readings is fine. If it’s fiction I’ll abandon or start again.

This time, I bought a brand new novel to take with me on the holiday and I managed four pages before the ferry had other ideas and most of our tour party got green around the gills.

The first proper bookstore I made it to would not let me escape without buying three brand new short story collections. I’ve so far managed to read one story from one of the books – it was terrific! – and then I’ve gone to another store and bought two more books, one a memoir, one a novella. I am 40 pages into the memoir and I will complete this book while on holiday.

But will I get to the novel I bought?

Will I find more books to buy in a second-hand store?

I feel the answer to the first question is ‘no’ and the answer to the second question is ‘definitely’.

I’ve read more than 200 books this year so far. Many of them are graphic novels, some of them not much longer than pamphlets, but it all still counts. I’ve listened to a few audiobooks, I’ve read some huge novels, non-fiction and story collections too. A few 400 and 500-pagers. And also some 100-200 pagers. But I’m not worried about how long the book is – it’s just whatever takes my fancy at the time.

I do notice that my reading habits now are more confused, my selection my eclectic and I’m basically keeping books by my bed or in my travel bag like a hundred tabs open on my laptops and devices.

Online reading – and working, and living – had ruined me somewhat.

But there’s still nothing better than curling up with a good book, or a great story from within a good book, or a graphic novel or a pamphlet or some such.

So today’s newsletter is not much at all. And is going to end here. I have a window of opportunity this morning. The rain is coming in, perhaps just briefly. The petrichor and the second cup of coffee have me in a nice space. I’m going to finish the book about H.P. Lovecraft that I bought a couple of days ago and which I am so far loving. I’m going to try to also knock out the Stephen King Kindle-only novella that I started earlier in the week and then maybe, just maybe I’ll get to that Grady Hendrix novel I purchased for the trip.

We are having a wonderful time away as a family with our car and our dog – we have seen loads of extended family peeps, caught up with some good friends, and most importantly I’m not thinking too much about work, or the world where I live. I’m in the holiday-zone. And reading is one of the great luxuries to take with you into that space, to help take you away from the place where you have to spend the majority of your time. Now if I could only stop buying books on my travels I’d get even more reading done…

And when I get home there’ll be all those library books to panic about, to return a bit late or renew or desperately race through.

These are happy concerns from a largely untroubled life. Absolutely.

I don’t take that for granted at all.