My Holiday Reading

Happy summer everyone!

I’m on an InterRail trip with two of my friends and we’ve spent the past few days walking around Brussels. We ate real Belgian frites, saw Manneken Pis and went to the Magritte museum. As an extra treat for me, one of these friends (who lives in Brussels) lead us through Galerie Botier. This passage is full of little bookshops and large displays of French books. Even though I can hardly read two words of French it made me very happy to have a look at their beautiful covers and bindings. Just holding a book makes me happy – you fellow booklovers will understand the feeling :).

Books I’m reading

Shakespeare’s Restless World by Neil MacGregor.

I’ve never read much non-fiction, but this book is really winning me over. Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, gives interesting insights in the world that Shakespeare lived in by use of 20 different objects. I’m only at chapter 5, but I’m greatly enjoying it so far. It’s very accessible, but still engaging if you are knowledgeable about the topic.

The Penguin Book of English Short Stories

I’ve also packed this collection of short stories that I’m excited to try, but haven’t started yet. Some friends gave it to me for my birthday last year (a while ago, I know :s) because it contains stories by Katherine Mansfield, Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley and many others. I have yet to try most of these great names and this would be a good opportunity to do so.

I have a habit of packing way too many books because I like having a choice of things to read. However, I figured that a book of short stories would give me a choice between several authors and that two such very different genres would keep me entertained for a while. I’m happy to have only packed two books :).

This morning we took the Thalys to Paris and saw the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower for real. I haven’t seen any bookstores yet, but I’m sure I will do soon enough.

What books did you take on holiday? How do you choose which ones to pack? Please leave a comment below :).

Pssst, I wrote a guest blog for Aman’s Confessions of a Readaholic, which he will upload around the 20th of this month, so keep an eye on his blog! (And in the meantime you can have a look at the other good articles he posts.)