I love London at this time of year. It feels sort of empty and quiet – which it is, because most people have gone away and it feels like everyone else just relaxes into the space. But it's also a nice time to be thinking about what to read. I like the idea of holiday reads – I tend to take an optimistic stack of books fully intending read Proust but instead get sidetracked by Twilight [don't], or find an old Georgette Heyer & that's that.
Back in July The Guardian did a list of their top 50 recommended beach reads: it looks good. From the ones I've read, I would highly recommend The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (an effortless read, timeless and beautiful with wonderful characters you won't want to leave), Atonement by Ian McEwan (thrillingly intense – although you've probably read it by now, or seen the film), The Beach, Alex Garland (great page-turning backpacker thriller hokum), Imogen, Jilly Cooper (part of an unbelievably dated but still enjoyable series about Sloaney girls & their quest for the perfect man), The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (beautifully written, vivid characters & story), The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch (funny & odd tale of a man living in a strange house by the sea), Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald (for a melancholic trip back in time to the French Riviera of the 1930s), Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, Geoff Dyer (more of an armchair read for if you have to stay at home, this one – he brings the places in his story so vividly to life).
And for my own recommendation I'm adding One Day by David Nicholls, a tender, funny, wise book, with brilliantly written dialogue, that made me laugh, cry and stay up till 3 in the morning to finish it. Perfect.