When I was 10 my dad got a new job. This meant we had to move house from a small town in the Midlands to an even smaller village in ‘the south.’ Geography had never been a strong point and I hadn’t heard of the place where we were due to end up so my parents told me it was, “near Reading” – somewhere that I had actually heard of.
We were a few weeks away from the move when one day the post arrived and with it, a leaflet that caught my eye. On the cover was a series of images of highly photogenic families and couples running on the beach, floating in the pool and indulging in a light game of volleyball where no one looked sweaty or out of breath. The sky was blue, the sun was shining and everyone was smiling. The headline on top of the page? ‘Holiday Reading.’
Wow! Why had no one told me we were going to move to this utopia? Why was I stressing about leaving all my friends and going to a new school when this land of sunshine and sandy sports awaited me? Take me there now!
That moment of joy was sadly crushed when my mother kindly explained to me that the leaflet was not in fact extolling the delights awaiting us just off the M4 but – if I had bothered to open it – was designed to sell books. Books that you might want to take on holiday. AKA ‘holiday reading’.
Oh.
Since then, any article with the title, ‘Holiday Reading’ brings a slight PTSD moment as I’m transported back to that day. But, over time, I have faced the fear, read the articles and – frequently – bought the books. I love reading and I love a list of recommendations. And, if you do too and are searching for something to peruse under the sun, here’s five books worth packing.
The ‘non-boring business’ book – The Double X Economy – Linda Scott
I can’t tell you the number of men who tell me they don’t read fiction, only biographies and business books. Hey fellas, this one’s for you. A storming evidence-based analysis on how women’s economic subordination drags down national economies and fosters global crises from poverty to human trafficking. As Gloria Steinem said, ‘the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.’
The ‘buy it now, pays for itself later’ book – The Work Smarter Guide to Negotiation- Jim Houghton & Kirk Kinnell
Full disclosure, this book is from the same stable as my own latest publication, ‘The Work Smarter Guide to Presenting’. It’s probably gauche to recommend my own book so I’m punting this one. Mainly because holidays are peak times for honing your negotiation skills. If you’ve got children, you’ll know they are inherent masters at wearing you down – more ice cream, staying up later, buying expensive crap from vending machines etc. You need strategies to create win wins and within these pages is where you’ll find them.
The ‘have a point of view at dinner’ book – Working Assumptions – Julia Hobsbawn
When you spend two weeks doing no more than walking to the pool and lying there all day, there could be the fear of running out of conversation over dinner. It’s unlikely, ‘what did you do today?’ will get you very far as a conversation starter. So how about boning up on the future of work? It might sound counterintuitive to spend your time off reading about work, but this is an engrossing discourse on how and where we’ll all be working in the future and whether AI is about to eat our lunch.
The ‘hand-luggage only’ book – Cultural Amnesia – Clive James
I’m a speedy reader and can churn through a book a day on holiday. Unfortunately, I’m no fan of the Kindle so I literally take a suitcase of books away with me every year and leave them at the hotel for someone else to read once I’m done. If you’d rather prioritise beachwear over books, you’ll need one that can last you a week. I’m not going to recommend Ulysses by James Joyce, which is what optimistic me took interrailing for a month when I was 19. Unsurprisingly, that one came home untouched by human hand but this one is a good mix of lengthy and light-hearted and will leave you wiser and more informed as a result.
The ‘absolute corker’ book– Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann
Let’s be honest, all we really want from a holiday read is a gripping page-turner that’s going to keep us glued to our sun loungers until cocktail hour. If you haven’t read this, you’re in for a treat. Set in New York and California in the sixties, it’s a glossy romp covering showbiz, celebrity, Hollywood divas, drugs (‘dolls’) and scandal. Susann dedicated the book to her poodle Josephine, which gives you a flavour of the level of camp you can expect.
Whether your travels take you far or you’re staying closer to home, may you get a chance to switch off, rest and rejuvenate this summer. And if you’ve got reading (or even Reading) recommendations of your own, we’d love to hear them.
