Summer reads for 2016…

I realise that upon first glance the title of this post might lead one to believe I was going to produce a list of new and interesting books but the theme of this blog is retro and so I apologise to anyone visiting under false pretences.

Within a few short weeks I shall be departing the wintery idyll that is England for sunnier climes and a lengthy leave of absence. Taking the right books on holiday ranks on equal terms with passports and money, it is, quite simply, an essential.

Planning your summer reads is not as straightforward as some would believe. Moods change and that has to be accounted for should the choices be made too early. There is also the question of substance, I know I require two to three days before I can fully wind down and embrace the holiday mode. With that in mind I prefer to leave the ‘heavier’ books until such point as I can give them my full attention.

So here’s the first draught so to speak. One or two may change or there might be an addition but for now I have chosen (in order):

Graham Greene; The Heart of the Matter, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Don DeLillo’s Americano, Francoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse, Christopher Hitchens Thoma Paine’s Rights of Man and Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

I am working my way through the quite brilliant Empire series by Gore Vidal so there is every chance that one of those will be finished on the journey. I love this part of the holiday process, reading a book in the sun with a cooling sea breeze is and should be what life is all about.