emmanovella

BOOKS I TOOK ON HOLIDAY

4/10/2017

Last week I went on holiday with my mum and gran to their favourite place (seriously, they NEVER go anywhere else now): Fuengirola, Spain.

This was my second time here, the first being in June 2014 which was the first for mum and gran also. I couldn't tell you how many times my mum has been. She's got friends over their now and with such cheap flights she goes over at least three times a year - if not more! (She's actually going again in about three weeks time...) Anyway, this is not a post about Spain, but rather a post about the ridiculous amount of books I took with me.

You read that right.

R I D I C U L O U S.

We arrived at the hotel about 10 or 11pm on the Sunday night and arrived home at midnight Friday night/Saturday morning. So I had four full days, one half day and two flights to read. That's an easy 7 books, right? I could fit in 7 books no bother. Except I was only allowed six by the mother. Except I snuck in an extra two (nearly three, but I was being sensible - so I thought hahah) so I had 8 books with me. Now, at the time, I was so sure I'd finish at least five or six and the rest were just spares incase I didn't like one etc... Idiot, Emma.

You see, I haven't been abroad with my mum since that inaugural holiday to Fuengirola in 2014 so I stupidly forgot that a holiday with Ange is not a week of relaxation and reading but actually a week of extreme shopping. I kid you not. That woman would win gold in the sport of walking around an entire town/city every day to go into every shop five times to eventually buy the thing she saw in the first one just before we leave. It's exhausting. I walked nearly 100k steps that week - and that "week" was Monday morning to Friday afternoon - and considering we often stopped for food, drink or ice cream and that I rarely hit my 5k target on my fit bit you can see what I mean. I still have blisters. I also got a nice pair of fake Nike's from the looky-looky man because I needed SOMETHING to support my ankles!

So, you can gather that sticking to six books was ambitious and adding another two was somewhat reckless - but what makes it better is that we got to the airport and there's a WHSmith Bookshop. As in - no stationary. No magazines or sweets or food. Just books. And we were in an airport. Which means no hardbacks. I hate hardbacks. But I really wanted Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart... So what do you do? You buy the Irish/Airside edition which is essentially just a trade paperback - my favourite type of book - and cheaper. But then you notice they have this for another new release you wanted (Things A Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls) so of course you pick that up... uh oh.. 10 books... but whoopsie... it's 3 for 2 and Adam Silvera's They Both Die at the End is right there staring at me - a book that was on my highly anticipated releases for September - so I grabbed that one and ended up carrying five books onto the plane in hand luggage, four in my suitcase and two in my mums. Yeeeaaahh

You've probably figured out I did N O T finish 11 books on this vacation. Nor did I finish the eight I snuck along.. Or the six I was originally allowed.. Nope. I finished two. A measly two. well two and a half...

I first of all read We Were Liars by E Lockhart. I had started this the day before we left, thinking I'd finish it but in the end I went to bed and then needed to pack (yes, I packed the day of my flight.) I know I'm late to the game on this book but I finally read it and I won't tell you what I thought about it until my wrap up - fear not, I'm behind on posts so this week will be full of catch ups!)

The second book I finished was Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon. This was... interesting. It's non-fiction which isn't something I read loads of. Usually I find these fairly quick to get through as they tend to be like a conversation. There's no 'the blue, floral patterned curtains waved in the wind, blowing out into the darkened room that smelled of a freshly blown out candle and the remnants of dinner' setting. It's very much 'me and x were in a bar and he said' type stuff. But I struggled with this one. I don't know if I'm just not a fan of the author or if some of the things she writes about hit home too much so I needed to take break more often than I usually do but I do think that had I stuck to fiction I may have managed to get through at least one more book.

I started Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison when away but finished it once home so technically I read two and a half books. I know, it doesn't really count. This was a strange book. Again, I'll discuss my thoughts in my wrap up.

I'm going to list the books i took with me but I won't discuss their synopsises. If you want to know more about them the goodreads page will be linked for each of them.

There are definitely a number of reasons I only got through two and a half .

First of all, I can't read on planes 90% of the time. Our flight out was absolutely roasting and the cabin pressure wasn't great so I ended up playing noughts and crosses with my gran and listening to music. The flight home was late and had so, many. babies. on it so I just slept. I always sleep on flights. Why I thought I'd get through any amount of a book on both flights let alone one each is mind boggling.

Then we have mum and her shopping. We went around the souvenir shops all the way to the other end of town on the Monday, to the market on Tuesday, Wednesday rained in the morning so I read a bit then slept until about 12:30/1pm, we went to the zoo on Thursday but I did get about half an hour or so by the pool to read - and even went for a swim!, and then Friday we sat in nearby bars and the pool at the hotel before going to the airport. So the fact I finished two books seems like a miracle (excluding the fact the first book was incredibly short and I was already halfway through before we left Scotland...)

Basically, this holiday was not for reading. But since coming back, I've been determined to read and I'm feeling super motivated to knock some books out of my TBR, catch up with my reading goal and set a list of 21 books I want to read when I'm 21 (I've mentioned it loads but my birthday is a week todaaaaayyyyy)

If you've made it this far then I applaud you. Do you read when you go on holiday or do you like to explore? I'm a mixture of both. My mum reads more when she's on holiday but only if she actually decides she wants to sit in the sun and read.

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