Travel & Hotspots
What I like to read the most during the holidays
You are going on a trip and you are taking with you... books of course, because finally some time and peace to make quite a few reading meters. Deciding what exactly goes in the suitcase is not always easy. A lot of new literature appears of course, but sometimes you just feel like a classic, a book you are almost sure will please you, or at least not leave you indifferent.
I am a real paper reader. Letters on such a screen don't do it for me, I like to turn paper pages. I love the smell of some old books – years of mold in a basement is not worth a sniff, well-preserved and sweet-dusty is. And I find the rustling of the pages when turning soothing. Great was the joy when I discovered Dwarsliggers: I initially found them a bit silly, but it is a nice portable format (and no weight – saves kilos if you want to take Tolkien's famous trilogy along again). And: nothing crackles more sinfully than the Biblical tissue paper they use for these mini-books.
Well, for those who really still don't know what to put in the suitcase, I share here my quartet of favorites for vacation. Because sharing is caring. I hope you discover a gem.
Richard Yates – Revolutionary Road (1961)
America, late fifties. Frank and April Wheeler are an attractive couple living with their two sweethearts in a prosperous American suburb. Everything seems hunky-dory, but underneath, boredom and dissatisfaction are gnawing at the colorful facade of the cornerstone family. A gripping novel about the sorrow of bourgeois existence and the inability to escape it, despite grand dreams. Beautifully written, tear-jerkingly beautiful and still relevant despite the age of the book.
”Nothing crackles more sinfully than the Biblical tissue paper they use for these mini-books”
Reif Larsen – The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet (2009)
A touching book about Tecumseh Spreeuw Spivet, a twelve-year-old boy who can draw like crazy and makes extremely detailed maps, graphs, and natural history drawings – among others for the world-famous Smithsonian Institute in Washington. When he is awarded a prize for this (the museum has no idea he is only twelve), he decides to travel as a stowaway on a train across America to receive his prize in DC. The captivating and fast-paced story is enlivened with Tecumseh's drawings, a margin full of amusements. Exciting, funny, and sweet.
Nicholson Baker – House of Holes (2011)
Petite pornette for sultry summer evenings. Baker narrates a secret garden of pleasures where every visitor finds what he or she is looking for: the penis paradise with a wall full of holes where anonymous rods proudly stick their heads up in hopes of a pat and attention, sturdy trees to make love with, and unparalleled massage laundries where even the coldest frogs still turn hot. A virtuoso written sex novella, in the style of Burroughs' hallucinogenic Naked Lunch. A gem of a book to refresh your dirty word vocabulary.
Roald Dahl – My Uncle Oswald (1979)
Read a hundred times, but still a feast. Dahl is of course a master storyteller, someone who effortlessly takes you into his fable-tastic world of inventions. Uncle Oswald is a bon vivant who trades in love pills made from crushed beetles, sex peppers that make the user think of nothing but sex. When he meets someone who can freeze sperm, he sees a lucrative trade in it. Oswald extorts celebrities for their sperm, with the help of his pills and a woman. A witty book that you read in one go, hopping with pleasure.
Written by Kalinka Hählen
