I spent last week lazing away on holiday. I know, lucky me, but one day back in the office and it feels like I never left. I think the tan faded as soon as I saw my inbox.
But back to the holiday. In an effort to switch off I did as little as possible, but once a publisher, always a publisher and I couldn’t help but do daily surveys on who was reading what at the pool/beachside.

Most of it was predictable: David Baldacci featured hugely, as did David Nicholls’ One Day (I counted three separate copies being read in one afternoon. But some of it was surprising. Most so, was the ever so posh barrister, Charles (I have no shame in eavesdropping) reading Marian Keyes’ Angel, and a WAG lookalike  reading Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. That’ll teach me to judge a book by its cover.

Although I spied a lovely assortment of A&B books available at the airport shops on the way over, sadly I did not spot any of our own books being read while away. So to amuse myself I looked at what everyone else was reading and thought of a suitable A&B replacement.

Posh Charles’s wife: Reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Should be reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford or The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher

Posh Charles’s young daughter: Reading nothing.
Should soon be reading Love, Inc. by Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout ( out this September)

WAG lookalike’s boyfriend: Reading The Sun
Should be reading…anything else really. Although I couldn’t help being morbidly intrigued by the one headline about a rat eating someone’s grandmother (I have no shame in reading over other people’s shoulders either, you see).

Honeymooners (bride): Reading David Baldacci (not sure which one, could have more than one, they all look the same to me.
Should be reading Richard Jay Parker’s Stop Me

Honeymooners (groom): Reading Alan Sugar’s What You See is What You Get. In fact, I saw at least three of these being read too.
Should be reading The Next 100 Years by George Friedman

Glamazon 1: Reading a Kindle (spoiled my fun).
Hopefully reading one of our e-books.

Glamazon 2: Reading Milly Johnson’s Here Come the Girls
Should be reading Victoria Connelly’s Molly’s Millions

Lovely lobster-red couple (woman): Reading Room by Emma Donoghue
Should be reading One Foot Wrong by Sofie Laguna

Lovely lobster-red couple (man): Reading something by Jo Nesbo
Should soon be reading The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson (due out in Oct)

Lara Crisp, Managing Editor