What makes a really great summer read (according to Britain’s best literary critic)

IIf reading can sometimes obsess us like an ecstatic drug, summer reading promises the trip of a lifetime. But one great mystery of the “perfect holiday book” remains that this dream rarely comes true. Perhaps choosing the book to take under your holiday blanket is like falling in love, the kind of thrill best left to chance.

Once upon a time in the last century, in the bygone age of ink and paper, I was fortunate enough to discover, in a moment of pure serendipity, the best summer reading of all time. It was, I later found out, a novel that Samuel Johnson called “the first book in the world to reveal knowledge of the human heart.”

I read first Clarissa or the story of a young lady by Samuel Richardson in a multi-volume, gold-embossed library edition, during a summer holiday in France. In the house where I was staying, I had devoured the books intended for the trip and was overwhelmed with holiday reading. Since nothing else was available in English, I took Clarissa – or rather, I carefully opened the first of eight volumes to think about the subtitle: Understand the most important issues in personal life, and in particular, highlight the stresses that can accompany misbehavior by parents and children in relation to the marriage.

At the beginning I was shockingly ignorant about Clarissa’s Importance and influence because of its fearsome reputation as the longest novel in the English canon (some 970,000 words). Within a few hours, however, I was in the grip of a powerful and intoxicating drug, the tempestuous drama of Clarissa Harlowe and her fatal attraction to the daring libertine Robert Lovelace, described in a series of letters.

The rest of my holiday soon became lost in a confused haze, and finally became a compulsive, breakneck gallop leading to the harrowing climax when this unfortunate young lady succumbed to temporary insanity or worse. No subsequent summer reading could ever displace the excitement of the experience. (This is perhaps the irretrievable joy of books that one discovers in the first reading frenzy of one’s life.)

Clarissayou might argue, is not a prime example of the anatomy of the perfect holiday book. Far too long, too traditional, and quite simply too much, in every way. And yet… in a strange way, Richardson’s masterpiece ticks all the boxes and meets all the expectations of a great summer read.

No question, it was a happy discovery that suited my mood at the time. But I also understand that classics are not for everyone. They have characteristics that do not always harmonize well with the holiday routine or rhythm. Proust’s In Search of Lost Time in many volumes could leave you dissatisfied and frustrated. In other words, pack an Agatha Christie for every European masterpiece.

But even if a summer read is not a classic by definition, it should be a magical experience. It should stay with you for a long time, spark lots of conversation, and above all, entertain you – and shine as a shining beacon of genius long after you return to work.

Of course, an eight-volume hardback novel is an impractical companion for a Ryanair holiday, unless you plan to go on holiday in a double-decker bus. Moreover, despite all the #MeToo resonance, Clarissa belongs to a canon that is no longer in fashion. The 21st century reader wants something less intimidating, more contemporary and more immediate. Taste is the strangest thing in reading. There is no accounting for that, as the saying goes. So how can we reach a consensus on the ideal summer read?

One caveat: never underestimate the role of vanity in the choice of books. As readers, we are notorious show-offs. Remember the game called “humiliation” that David Lodge first introduced in Change of locationhis campus novel from the 1970s? Players scored points by admitting to having never read well-known, famous titles. The comic climax of an entertaining subplot comes when ambitious Howard Ringbaum, desperate to win, admits he has never read hamletand thus destroyed his academic prospects.

Lodge’s immortal insight into the traffic of reading is that anyone who enters the self-improving world of books and letters is in danger of humiliating themselves. What is a classic anyway? There are many definitions, but Italo Calvino said it best: “A classic is a book that has never finished what it wants to say.” The only meaningful orientation might be a set of signposts to the liberated mind.

When in doubt, here’s my mantra: try something weirder.

Here is my holiday top 10, the best books to take with you this summer (possibly on a Kindle):

1. To relax: a great thriller or a classic crime novel: Graham Greene Brighton Rock or The Quiet American; Raymond Chandler’s The big sleep and Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a train or The talented Mr. Ripley. The Square: Queen, King, Tailor or The perfect spy

2. A popular non-fiction book, something that flatters, trains and beguiles. like Sapiens by Yuri Noah Harari.

3. A new volume of poetry for sunsets and twilight, possibly by Paul Muldoon, Sharon Olds or Hannah Sullivan.

4. A sex book. Erotic novels are good for a break. All four by Miranda July is the hottest read of this year.

5. A top-class biography: My two recommendations: Nicholas Shakespeare’s fascinating life by Ian Fleming and Anna Funders Wifehooda brilliant study of Orwell’s misogyny and his unacknowledged debt to his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy.

6. A contemporary novel:Ghost performance by Isabella Hammad; Percival Everett’s Deleteor perhaps the great novel by the late Paul Auster, The music of chance.

7. A classic of the border region: Jack Kerouac, On the way; or Mark Twain, The hard way.

8. Something rare and strange: My cult candidate, Hadrian the Seventh by Frederick Rolfe.

9. A travel book: I recommend something by Paul Theroux or Patrick Leigh Fermor.

10. A bonus book: For complete relaxation: anything by Jilly Cooper, Stephen King or P. G. Wodehouse.

I will conclude where I began, in the kingdom of Serendip. There is a surefire way to make your summer reading as much a lottery as a library. Why not travel empty-handed? Set out carefree, light as air. In the words of Coriolanus, “There is another world.” Live by your wits. Scrounge, borrow, beg, and possibly steal. I did that a few summers ago. It was a wild journey with some extraordinary discoveries. Buy your first book at the airport. If you don’t like it, leave it on the plane. There’s always another book on a shelf somewhere else. In this strange digital century, we still live in a universe of print.

As a lexical nomad, you will reinforce the truth that reading is a blissful, joyful and solitary experience. It takes place in a world where there is no censorship, no police or government control: the liberated mind. Avanti!

What are your absolute favorite holiday reads? Let us know in the comments…