I have a very, very, very long history of fighting against the idea that there are “boy books” and “girl books” and in fact, despite multiple studies to the contrary, I also don’t believe that boys read any less than girls. Traditional novels, yes, perhaps, but in the general scheme of things if all Internet pages, graphic novels, newspaper pages, etc. are added in then I’m not totally concerned about boys and their reading habits. “Let them read what they enjoy” was always my motto (even if it wasn’t quite as succinct as “let them eat cake”), and more than once I went over a very generous book budget to ensure that everyone was getting what they wanted. Ah the good old days, when buying books didn’t impact my own bank balance.
Anyway, enough with the trip down memory lane. At the moment there is only one boy I’m concerned with and that’s Laurence. You see, before we go on holiday I’m always charged with making sure that he brings enough to read. And not just enough to read – but what to read as well. This means that for about a week I feel an immense pressure to come up with a number of books so powerful, so engrossing, so entertaining and/or so thought-provoking that he won’t be able to put a single one of them down before he gets to the last page.
Trust me, this is a lot of pressure.
I think I’ve got a good start going though. So far I’ve compiled:
- Inside Delta Force (Eric Haney)
- Beaufort (Ron Leshem)
- Stasiland (Anna Funder)
- Friday Night Lights (H. G. Bissinger)
Obviously I need a few more. Any suggestions?
My fella read The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis recently, he thought it was brilliant. He’s reading London Fields at the moment which he’s also enjoying.
Others off the top of my head: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, anything by Iain Banks (Iain M. Banks if he likes sci-fi) and Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. (My fella loved his short story collection too – The Nasty Bits)
….Move FNL to the number 1 position!…
Yvonne – lol – He read all the Bourdain books on our last holiday! The Rachel Papers might do well though…
SED – I have my doubts if he’s going to like it, but we’ll see.
One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick. It’s written from the perspective of a Marine that fought in this Iraq war. I don’t know if he likes military books. Isn’t there a new Roddy Doyle book out? My husband has been asking for that one. Oh, and he always love anything by John Banville. (Is that how you spell it?)
Pride & Prejudice.
Megan – Ooh, One Bullet Away sounds good. And I actually think he might enjoy the newer Ross O’Carroll Kelly books than anything else. lol.
Liz – Yes, and then you and I and Simon and Laurence can all sit around and discuss wit and whimsy in the Austen novels. It will be like our own personal book club.
A really good book that’s short but has a good story is “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton.
Has he read “DaVinci Code”? It’s exciting and the chapters are short so it doesn’t feel like you have to read a big long chapter if you don’t want to.
“The Time Traveller’s Wife” is also good.
Jenny – Thanks!!