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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Vacation time, what books should I take along?

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

07:54 / 24.06.08

Shortly I will be heading South, and will be sitting on a shady campsite somewhere in Southern France.
Since the advent of a little Sjaak in our family our holidays have become a lot less active. It doesn't really bother me, as the French viniculteurs bring their wine to our campsite for tasting, and it is the only time of the year to read many good BOOKS.

So please help me compile my book list for this summer. I can take maximum five books.

It works well to have an easy starter, such as a good thriller of Sci-fi novel (in past years this role was filled by Altered Carbon, Olympos, and the latest Banks 'Matter').
Thereafter the mood switches to something more filling (again, in the past: Cloud Atlas, Murakami, etc).
From here we're getting in main course terrain, it could be meat or fish, I am sufficiently immersed to read anything now.
Please let me have your suggestions! (and why of course)
Thanks!

Evil Scientist

08:29 / 24.06.08

It works well to have an easy starter, such as a good thriller of Sci-fi novel

I'd suggest Chasm City or Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds. Both rather good sci-fi thrillers (for my money Chasm City is a little bit better, but both are easily read but tasty enough to fill you up. Both read well as stand-alone novels (Chasm City is set in Reynold's Revelation Space universe but you don't need to know anything about that to read it).

astrojax69

10:25 / 24.06.08

coetzee's 'diary of a bad year' i can recommend for your murakami-slot: it has an intriguing and alluring device of several stories spread across the same page at once, making it a challenge to read, but the reward is coetzee's beautiful prose in a deceptively simple story with plain yet deep characters.

happy holiday!

Dusto

13:43 / 24.06.08

I haven't read it yet, but a friend of mine recently came out with a novel that sounds very Murakami-esque. It's called Atmospheric Disturbances, and it's about a psychologist who thinks his wife has been replaced by an exact replica, so he goes on a quest to find his real wife. The author's name is Rivka Galchen.

grant

13:46 / 24.06.08

I'm getting a lot out of Alejandro Jodorowsky's autobiography lately. It's an easy read, and intersects with a lot of things - Surrealists, Zen koans, pulp fiction, '60s dropout culture. Heavier on the Zen, which kind of surprised me. (And it's, as far as I can tell, the actual, authentic kind of Zen rather than the Zen-branding you get in cheesier books.)

I'm not halfway through yet, so I can't comment on the overall shape of the thing. But it's definitely a page-turner, if you're into enlightenment and initiation and all that jazz.

Whisky Priestess

15:34 / 24.06.08

The Count of Monte Cristo is a fabulously meaty chunk of holiday book, and is even French! Looks like a classic, reads like a thriller.

Aside from that, if you like satire take anything by Evelyn Waugh - it goes down like champagne and canapes.

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

10:19 / 26.06.08

Thanks all, this is starting to look very attractive (can't wait for holidays to start!)
So now I've got Alistair Reynolds as a starter,
Then on to Rivka Galchen (I love that plot summary by the way)
For secundi piatti something more filling, such as Jodorowsky.
I once started on Monte Christo in French, but that wasn't a good idea. The initial chapters went fine, and nicely written (especially in french) but after that I couldn't keep it up.
I have always wanted to read it though, so I should pick it up in a translation.

Anybody have a good suggestion for a desert?

(and of course, the next question, what WINE should I drink with each!)

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

10:21 / 26.06.08

Forgot to mention Coetzee, I have read some of his that I found very good, but haven't read this one yet. Not really a desert is it? You think I can take six instead of five?

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