Summer books (again...)

Whatever I feel like I wanna read. Gosh.' So might Napoleon Dynamite, current hero of slacker teenagers and hipsters worldwide, respond to the question: 'What are you going to read on holiday?' And, in his unformed, gauche and thoroughly contrary way, he'd be quite right. Holiday reading, despite the self-imposed edict to impress your companions, achieve a Zen-like state of total relaxation and catch up on forgotten masterpieces, all at the same time, is an entirely personal affair. And so it should be. Despite the pronouncements of newspapers and magazines as soon as it stops raining and this year's air traffic control strikes get under way, there is no pressure on you to read anything whatsoever if you'd rather not. Fine. Be bored and miserable and a social outcast if it makes you feel good.

[Read on]