Does anything beat a beach read?

My version of a 'brat summer'

Growing up I was a voracious reader. I wore my ability to devour entire books in a day like a Brownie badge, proud and precocious. Encouraging the habit, my Mum would cart us off to the local book shop at the start of the school break and let us select three books each to bring on our annual summer holiday.

Our end of term present meant I was often more excited about picking out the books I was going to take than the holiday itself. I’d spend what felt like hours amongst the shelves, scanning them with my eyes like Superman, running my fingers along the spines as if I could simply feel my way to my next read.

Of course the world was analogue back then, so I had to balance my desire to find books long enough to keep me going at least a day, with the reality that I had to cram said books in-between the flip-flops, swimsuits and summer dresses of my suitcase.

I’d usually start by shortlisting seven or eight (Mum’s eyebrows raising on sight), then narrowing it down to five before agonising about my final choices for at least thirty minutes. Finally I’d make my selections and my sister and I would be driven home, greedily clutching our spoils, promising we wouldn’t open them until the day we set off on our trip. The anticipation was akin to Christmas Eve.

Though I now have to pay for my own books (and holidays), I’ve tried to keep that anticipatory energy for reading going as we hit summer season every year. It helps that my book reading has withered to a dry husk of a habit compared to those days, the life sucked out of it first by an English Lit degree and then by a busy work schedule. Summer holidays offer that opportunity to start anew, to plough through a pile of books as long as my arm.

Over the years I stuck to broad themes to keep me excited. In my twenties I chose books which matched the locations I was travelling to. In my thirties I embraced modern crime fiction and ‘chick lit’ titles; genres I may have scorned in the past as a snobby English Lit grad for whom only Ulysses would do (I never read it).

It worked. I still look forward to my summer reading stints, I mean, holidays, as if I were a kid waking up to presents at Christmas. And just like all the good holidays we go on, I can still mentally relive them, connecting certain books to specific places in location as well as time. Here are three examples which immediately come to mind:

• Demolishing the entire Tintin series with my friend, Sam and a couple of Oranginas (even better, as it was his collection he’d been the one who had to convince his parents to lug them across France).

• Cackling over scheming Becky Sharp in the soap-opera-like Vanity Fair curled up on a sunbed at an all-inclusive in Tenerife.

• Left speechless by The Quiet American whilst backpacking in Cambodia. It’s still one of my favourite novels.

In a couple of weeks I set off on my longest summer trip in a long old time: three whole weeks. Twenty-one days to create some new reading-related memories.

Help me make them!?

Over to you: tell me what to pack this summer

So far I have one title to dive into this trip: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I’ve never read any of her work and I’m excited by the sound of this Chilean saga which stretches out over decades and covers love, magic and revolution.

But one is not enough: I’d like to cram another two or three in my suitcase, and this is where I need your help.

• What have you read lately which you couldn’t put down?

• What have you pressed excitedly into someone’s hands?

• What book has lingered long in your consciousness after you’ve put it down?

I’m not fussy about genre or style. I’m just dreaming of paperbacks covered with suncream smudges, their laminate covers hot to the touch. Moments I realise I’ve read the same page five times because the passage I just read sent me on an inner trip. A salty seaside margarita to toast ticking Allende off my list.

All that’s missing is the next book to open…

So please drop your recommendations into the comments. And thank you - I can’t wait to pack some books I’ve not yet met!

And perhaps you too have stories of much-loved books which spoke to specific summers, or periods of time? If you’re open to sharing, I’d love to hear about them.

My own recommendations?

I couldn’t ask for your summer reads without offering my favourites in return. These three stand out to me year after year:

• Anything by Barbara Kingsolver, but The Poisonwood Bible is up there with one of my most-recommended summer reads.

• The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller. Messy marriages. A difficult mother. And a beautiful summer house. One to inhale in a couple of sittings.

• I Capture the Castle by Dodi Smith. Yes, it’s technically a kids’ book (young adult, really), but that’s a huge part of its ‘coming of age’ charm. The characters are so vivid, charming, and authentic, I didn’t want it to end.

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