how many books would you take on holiday?

Current work: Medical
Listening to: Bach (still in stress puppy mode)
Reading: Jill Shalvis, Just Try Me - there's a reason why she was my favourite author in the Temptation line: her books are great. Enjoyed this one: very spiky heroine, and a hero that melted me.

The RNA blog has a great poll at the moment. How many books would you take on a two-week beach/poolside holiday? (Go and vote. You know you want to.)

It got me thinking. A beach or poolside holiday is my idea of hell; a day I could do, but more than that would leave me fidgety. I’m happiest exploring – so any holiday I take will involve pottering around castles, churches, museums, stately homes and the like. And I still need quite a few books with me, for chilling-out time.

Last time I packed books in our main suitcase, DH patiently explained that it was ridiculously heavy and I needed to repack the books in a different bag; so nowadays I take a separate book bag. Working is banned on holiday (yeah, right, as if a writer ever stops), so when we’re chilling out in the evenings (i.e. DH and the kids are watching a film that I can take or leave) I tend to read. And also in the mornings, before anyone else is up. Just me in a chair looking out into the garden, with a good book, birdsong and a cup of Earl Grey tea. Bliss.

The year before last, the final Harry Potter volume was released mid-holiday, so that ended up in the food shopping (thanks to lovely, lovely Waitrose). Son was quite shocked that I read it in an evening, so I shocked him a bit more by explaining that actually it was my third book that day. If I were ever forced to do a beach holiday, I’d need an e-reader charged with an awful lot of books, and even then there would be mutterings of discontent. I’m not the kind of person who sits still, unless chained to my desk.

I have a wonderful stockpile for this holiday. Usually I have the new Lindsey Davis and Judith Lennox paperbacks, but they're making me wait until next year (sniff). But I do have the new ones by Susanna Kearsley, Rachel Hore, Katie Fforde, CJ Samson and Arianna Franklin… and, although I *was* going to be good and wait for Victoria Connolly’s local book signing, I don’t think I can resist ‘Molly’s Millions’. Then there are a couple of titles that caught my eye and sounded intriguing (plus books that have been recommended to me, such as Tess Gerritsen’s ‘The Bone Garden’), and there are also some in my daughter’s TBR pile: if we run out, we can swap.

Actually, this reminds me of my mum and I swapping books all the time and then talking about them, from when I was Madam’s age. She’s currently reading Amanda Ashby’s ‘You Had Me At Halo’ and loving it. I’ve missed that swapping-and-talking hugely and having that back is such a joy. (And I can tell I’m stressed because right now I’m all tearful thinking about it, and how I used to read my mum’s Mazo de la Roche books by torchlight under the covers because she said they were too adult for me – hmm, and I’ve said the same thing to Madam about my M&Bs.)

At the end of this month, I’m really looking forward to my readfest. What are you looking forward to as holiday reads this year?