Reading List

I'm a reader. I can't go to bed at night without reading a chapter or two, and no journey or holiday is half as good without a book or several.

I'm in town tomorrow and plan to drop into Foyles between meetings to pick up a title or two for my summer trip to Cyprus. I've already got a couple of course/dissertation books tucked away for my time in the sun:

Richard Overy's Why the Allies won looks set to be absorbing, while Mark Byrnes' Politics and Space appears to be a worthy, but readable, account of NASA's image making. Somehow, though, I suspect I'll struggle to make too much headway into either while lying around the pool, so I'm going to look for some other readables that has to fit the following rules:

1. It has to be paperback - with two text books already, I'm a tad weight-limited
2. It has to be absorbing - nothing too heavy (or for that matter light-weight) for poolside reading
3. It has to be swappable - Jac will also be bringing her reading stack and we'll undoubtedly end up swapping at least one or two books over the fortnight.

At present, there are a couple of titles I'm leaning towards. One is Don DeLillo's Falling Man which is just out in paperback. I came to De Lillo through my love of Paul Auster's work which is not a million miles from De Lillo's, and loved both underworld and Cosmopolis. Falling Man has garnered very mixed reviews, and I want to see for myself whether this post 9/11 work stands up to his previous force and perception. It's a shame Auster hasn't got anything new out. I'm the kind of reader who hoovers up back lists, and have read just about everything the New York Trilogy - Travels in the Scriptorium author has produced.

I love a good short story too and enjoy work by the likes of Richard Ford and William Trevor. Again, neither has new work out this summer, so I'm heading towards another old favourite William Boyd and his latest collection: The Dream Lover.

I reckon I've still got room in my suitcase for one or two more good reads. I'm hoping that I'll get a free hour tomorrow to browse around Foyles and stick my nose in a few books in a way that's so much more fun than browsing online. But I'm open to suggestions for that unmissable summer read - any offers?