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Decent Holiday Reads

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  • 10-05-2012 8:23pm
    #1
    Cailin CoisFarraige
    Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭


    Haven't seen any threads about good holiday reads recently so apologies if I'm repeating other people.

    Another college year down and summer beckons! Which means - reading for pleasure rather than exam cramming!
    Heading off to the sun next week - any suggestions for a few good holiday reads? I'm completely allergic to "chick lit"


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    #2
    judgefudge
    Registered Users Posts: 915 ✭✭✭judgefudge


    The Beach, Alex Garland. Great story, very easy to read and seems apt!


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    #3
    realgirl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 212 ✭✭realgirl


    A few of my favourites, all pretty good for holiday reads...
    Life of Pi
    Marley and Me
    Touching the Void
    Skippy Dies
    Bringing Down the House
    Shantaram
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
    PS I Scored the Bridesmaids (not everyone's cup of tea!)
    The Kite Runner


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    #4
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    What's the difference between a decent holiday read and just a decent read?


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    #5
    Cailin CoisFarraige
    Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭Cailin CoisFarraige


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    What's the difference between a decent holiday read and just a decent read?

    I think I always see it as something that's easy to get into. Something with a story that I can dip in and out of, that if I go for a swim or something I'm not going to lose track of the story when I go back reading.


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    #6
    Paddy Samurai
    Registered Users Posts: 3,014 ✭✭✭Paddy Samurai


    Cailin CoisFarraige wrote: »
    Haven't seen any threads about good holiday reads recently so apologies if I'm repeating other people.

    Another college year down and summer beckons! Which means - reading for pleasure rather than exam cramming!
    Heading off to the sun next week - any suggestions for a few good holiday reads? I'm completely allergic to "chick lit"


    Bandit Roads by Richard Grant
    This is a great holiday read IMO. Although a technically a travel book it is highly entertaining.Its a travel book with a difference.
    Easy to read,easy to leave down and pick up L8tr.
    As André Breton noted when he visited Mexico, "Surrealism is not needed in this country." Although plenty of foreign writers have sought inspiration in the gothic fecundity of the canyons and cordilleras - one thinks of Sybille Bedford, Malcolm Lowry, Lawrence et al - none has braved the Sierra Madre, the most surreal of all Mexican landscapes. But here comes Richard Grant, finally, with a book about an eventful journey into North America's very own heart of darkness.

    The foothills of the 800-mile Sierra Madre Occidental lie just 20 miles south of the border town of Douglas, Arizona. Neither the Aztecs nor the Spaniards were able to subjugate the remote mountain villages, and, as the years went by, the largely mestizo clans developed what Grant calls "a rough, violent, fiercely independent culture that had more in common with the American frontier than the civilised parts of central Mexico". Travelling largely in rented vehicles, Grant finds that feuds and vendettas remain endemic, as do alcoholism, banditry, fanatical machismo and a deep distrust of outside authority. In the 180 or more years since independence, the state has evidently made few inroads. Local power is in the hands of regional strongmen revered as benefactors of clinics, churches and schools.

    full review


    http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jun/21/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview21


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    #7
    Mardy Bum
    Registered Users Posts: 3,674 ✭✭✭Mardy Bum


    Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. A book predominantly about teenage boys and girls but also examines other echelons of society in Celtic Tiger Ireland. Excellent read.


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    #8
    Cokeistan
    Registered Users Posts: 361 ✭✭Cokeistan


    I'll probably get roasted for this but I read Angels and Demons as a holiday book, I'd recommend reading it for when you're relaxing by the pool, easy to read and plot is fairly fast, just don't see any of it being possible!


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    #9
    PurpleBee
    Registered Users Posts: 274 ✭✭PurpleBee


    Complete Nonsense by Edward Lear is great although maybe you'd be finished it too quickly.


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    #10
    longshanks
    Registered Users Posts: 4,990 ✭✭✭longshanks


    realgirl wrote: »
    A few of my favourites, all pretty good for holiday reads...
    Life of Pi
    Marley and Me
    Touching the Void
    Skippy Dies
    Bringing Down the House
    Shantaram
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
    PS I Scored the Bridesmaids (not everyone's cup of tea!)
    The Kite Runner

    Shantaram is the worst book I ever read. Stay well away from it.


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    #11
    realgirl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 212 ✭✭realgirl


    longshanks wrote: »

    Shantaram is the worst book I ever read. Stay well away from it.

    I know so many people who love that book, I don't think anyone would be well advised to stay well away from it on the basis that one person didn't like it.


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    #12
    jam_mac_jam
    Registered Users Posts: 4,729 ✭✭✭jam_mac_jam


    realgirl wrote: »
    I know so many people who love that book, I don't think anyone would be well advised to stay well away from it on the basis that one person didn't like it.

    No really, its dreadful. One of the worst books I have ever read. I cant understand the hype, the most long winded silly prose when he can't write prose and 800 pages of him telling us how great he is.


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    #13
    Toby Take a Bow
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Toby Take a Bow


    jam_mac_jam wrote: »
    No really, its dreadful. One of the worst books I have ever read. I cant understand the hype, the most long winded silly prose when he can't write prose and 800 pages of him telling us how great he is.

    I've only ever heard overwhelmingly positive things about this book. I would say, based on this, that it's definitely a book that would probably appeal to any given person requesting suggestions.

    I've stayed away from it, mainly due to my fear that it can't possibly ever live up to the hype (I worked in a bookshop, and for a while it's all anyone - coworkers and customers - spoke/raved about).


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    #14
    jam_mac_jam
    Registered Users Posts: 4,729 ✭✭✭jam_mac_jam


    Toby Take a Bow wrote: »
    I've only ever heard overwhelmingly positive things about this book. I would say, based on this, that it's definitely a book that would probably appeal to any given person requesting suggestions.

    I've stayed away from it, mainly due to my fear that it can't possibly ever live up to the hype (I worked in a bookshop, and for a while it's all anyone - coworkers and customers - spoke/raved about).

    I would only suggest a book that I have read and liked so on that basis I would not recomend this to anyone. Some of this is so bad its amusing. Read some of the low star reviews on Amazon, clearly not everyone in the world loves it.


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    #15
    Toby Take a Bow
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Toby Take a Bow


    jam_mac_jam wrote: »
    I would only suggest a book that I have read and liked so on that basis I would not recomend this to anyone. Some of this is so bad its amusing. Read some of the low star reviews on Amazon, clearly not everyone in the world loves it.

    Oh, I never said everyone in the world loved it, just that in general it seems to have been a well-received book, which would mean that there'd be a fairly good chance that the reader will like it.

    Checking the Amazon reviews, with its overall of 4.5 out of 5 (I'm sure the negative reviews are very negative) would kind of prove my point.


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    #16
    Nody
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,306 CMod ✭✭✭✭Nody


    Paddy Samurai wrote: »
    Bandit Roads by Richard Grant
    This is a great holiday read IMO. Although a technically a travel book it is highly entertaining.Its a travel book with a difference.
    Easy to read,easy to leave down and pick up L8tr.
    I found it really boring myself but each to their own.

    Anyway throwing in a not very serious book but still relatively long (but easy to read) to stick through a vacation I'd add Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. No it is not serious about itself and if you're not a fan of zombies obviously it will not go down well but if you want something lightish to read that's fun and suitably light I'd recommend it.


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