I’ve been tagged by the lovely Suganiya to write a post about summertime reading. Suganiya is a blossoming writer, who has an interesting and varied blog, with posts on book reviews, discussions on fictional characters, and customs and traditions. She also participates in flash fiction writing challenges. You can read all these on her blog, Infinite Passion.
So here are the tag post requirements:
1. SHOW A BOOK WITH A SUMMERY COVER – e.g. the sea, beach and sun!
Not a great deal of choice for me with this one because my usual holiday reading tends to be in the same genres I read for the rest of the time, namely historical fiction and crime novels. But I can remember reading a few books with summery covers over the years and this is one of them:
This cover is of the Kindle version (the top third of which is unfortunately white, so doesn’t show up well) but I read a paperback edition that was in a bookcase in a holiday house we rented in Dorset a few years ago. The original cover had the same beach scene on it, as it’s a picture of a painting (called ‘The Shell Seekers’) which is the central theme of the story. The book was written by Rosamunde Pilcher in 1988. It’s an old-fashioned kind of book, almost cosy, family-saga styled compared with some gimmicky or fast-moving modern books with 21st style language and so on. I enjoyed it as a change from my usual reads.
2. PICK ONE FICTIONAL PLACE THAT WOULD BE THE PERFECT DESTINATION FOR YOUR SUMMER VACATION.
I’m going to cheat with this one because the place isn’t strictly fictional. This place was once a thriving city and now is just ruins, having been buried beaneath volcanic material for two thousand years. Of course I’m talking about Pompeii. The novel is set during the time of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79, so descriptions of the city are based on the author’s imagination, undoubtedly aided by the plan of the ruins and the artefacts found there. This is the book:
I’m also cheating because I’ve already been to Pompeii (as it is today, of course) and I took this book to read on the flight and any spare moments during our stay. When I say that I’d like to have a vacation there, I mean a quick trip in my Tardis back to Pompeii in the days before the eruption.
3. YOU’RE ABOUT TO GO ON A FLIGHT TO YOUR SUMMER VACATION AND WANT TO READ A BOOK THAT LASTS FOR THE WHOLE FLIGHT. WHAT NOVELLA DO YOU CHOOSE?
I’m not a fan of novellas as a rule, but I did have a think about a possibility for this question. So I picked this book because it looks very light and quick to read. It’s now on my Kindle, so I’ll have a read next week when I’m travelling up to Hadrian’s Wall. (I won’t be driving, on this occasion!)
4. YOU HAVE A CASE OF SUMMERTIME SADNESS. WHAT HAPPY BOOK DO YOU PICK UP TO PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE?
Right now I’d probably choose one of the books from the Falco series by Lindsey Davis. I’ve read most of them, but I think there are still a couple I didn’t manage to get around to. I’m really ‘into’ Romans at the moment and Falco always makes me smile. This is one I have already read, but it’s appropriately about Falco on a summer holiday:
5. YOU’RE SITTING ON A BEACH ALL ALONE… WHICH FICTIONAL CHARACTER WOULD BE YOUR BEACH BABE?
Definitely Thor from the film/movie of that name (i.e. played by Chris Hemsworth). He and his hammer can share my beach space any time. If he can’t make it across the Bifrost, I’ll have Falco.
6. TO MATCH YOUR ICE CREAM YOU WANT AN ICY COOL SIDEKICK! WHICH FICTIONAL SIDEKICK WOULD YOU PICK?
My first choice of sidekick would be Tonto from the movie The Lone Ranger (played by none other than the gorgeous Johnny Depp). I can justify this story as being based on books because I found quite a few of them on Amazon when I looked. Most are ‘kiddie books’, but that’s about my level. 😀
Here’s the cover of one such book – but no Tonto in sight! It called The Lone Ranger Book Classic and was written by Steff Fletcher and E. Joseph Dreany in 1956:
I also found one book with the characters from the film on the front. This was written by Elizabeth Rudnick:
7. SHARE THE SUMMERTIME HAPPINESS! WHO DO YOU TAG? (One person)
I thought I’d elicit a little male imput for this. So… I nominate Udit at The Almanac of Life.
Millie Thom 
Interesting summer choice you made. Sound lots of fun tho read and visit. 🙂
Well, I don’t usually read books with summer in mind, Scrapydo. I just carry on with my usual choices. I downloaded the novella just for this challenge, so I’ll have a read and see what I think. But I do like Falco. I think I got a bit fed up with him after reading about fifteen of the books and slowed down after that. 🙂
I agree with you, as soon as you have read as many as you did about Falco you have to leave it for some time before reading more
Yes, and reading after so many, they tend to become a bit ‘samey’ if you know what I mean. Time for a change. I really enjoyed reading the first few in the series though.
a wonderfully described list, Millie!
makes reading sound
even more fun 🙂
Thank you. I can’t profess to have read those about the Lone Ranger! Not my style, unfortunately. lol 🙂
Thats a pretty diverse list! I enjoyed reading through it.
I dont know whether I’ll be doing it, I’ve been doing too many awards/challenges over content based posts (atleast in my eye), so I’ve quit these, for now.
Anyway, thanks for the nomination!
No problem, Udit. It’s just a pity you’re swamped with nominations right now. But I understand how you feel.
I’ll surely see whether I can do this (I like castles, and thus your blog).
I’m glad you like castles because I have a few more lined up to post about this summmer. Haha. Thanks, Udit. 😀 As for the tag – post, the only thing that bothers me is that the tag comes to an end now. I can’t understand why it only asks for one nominee. Three would be much better,like the 3 Quotes Challenge. But that isn’t your problem – or mine – so if you can’t manage to do it, that’s perfectly acceptable. 🙂
I know, that’s whats not allowing me to gently denying this, as I’ve been doing till now.
It’s probably going to end at me, anyhow, people seldom respond to my nominations, haha. I think you should add more, rules are meant to be broken, aren’t they?
I don’t know where the tag started, or I might suggest more nominees to them. I’ll ask Suganiya, but I doubt she’ll know either. Don’t worry about it Udit…it really isn’t your problem. One nomination isn’t enough for any challenge, is it?
Haha, Nope.
All things come to an end.
Very true. 🙂
Loved this very much. Now I want a kindle of my very own.
Aw, thanks Chioma. A Kindle is great for going away with, in particular. At one time our suitcases used to be weighted down with several books each to read. Now we rely on Kindles – which can store hundreds of them. Other tablets are just as good, so you have a big choice. My Kindle is one for getting onto the Internet. too, but you can just get ones for reading books. (I’ve just bought myself a Samsung tablet. I can take photos with that as well. I’ll try it out when I’m up at Hadrian’s Wall next week. Better have the camera with us, too… just in case.) 🙂
LOL! I look forward to seeing your lovely pictures. I think the samsung tablet will take lovely pictures as most of their products do.
Ah… they probably do, but this is me you’re talking about. I can quite easily make a pig’s ear out of the simplest photograph. I’ll be trying it out tomorrow, so wish me luck! 😀
Is that a picture of you and your kids? Happy smiles there 🙂 I added those books to my reading list! I have a faint recollection of you recommending Falco in another post of yours (or maybe a comment of your I read) so I’ve probably already added that! 🙂
Yes it is me and two of our kids. Happy smiles because the water was so clear and deliciously warm. It was the first ‘beachy-type’ photo I pulled out yesterday, so it’ a photograph of a photograph. It’s me with Number 4 and 6 – in other words, Louise and Christopher. It was taken when we were in Corfu in 1999, so we all look a bit different now. Chris is now 31! The Falco books are funny, and so different to other books set in the Roman world. They have a very modern approach, which adds to the fun. The first few books all have a metal named in the title. The first one is ‘The Silver Pigs’. It’s best to start with that, so you know how characters met and so on. 😀
Ok, will do! 🙂 Have you ever read The Egyptian, by Mika Waltari? It’s set in ancient Egypt and my favorite book, I’ve read it twice (once in Finnish and once in English – the translation is very true to the original!) The author is a Finnish national icon and the book’s considered a classic over here. It’s about an adventurous young doctor and his travels and life, and the historical setting is just so utterly believable. Those Falco books sound very interesting now! I’m about the same age as your children, but age is just a number, after all! That photo looks like it holds lot of memories, as I’m sure it does 🙂
It seems I ought to add The Egyptian to
my very long list of TBR. It sounds just the kind of book I’d enjoy. As for Falco… he can irritate at times (his humour, that is). You could always read the first one or two to see what you think – they’ve been very popular. They’re set several years before the Vesuvius eruption and tell us a lot about Rome at that time. The modern approach is very unusual, but funny, too.
My eldest daughter is now 42 and the second, a son, is 41 this month, The girl in the photo is my other daughter, Louise, who also has a WP blog (afairymind at thestorytellersabode). She’s mid 30s now. Now I feel really ancient talking about all that. It was a lovely family holiday in Corfu and we did lots of island hopping trips, beach barbecues and Greek dancing along the table tops. Yes, we had a great time. 🙂
🙂
What a great book list! I’m interested in the third book. It sounds very interesting to me! 😉 Thanks a lot for the list Millie! Have a lovely Sunday! ❤ 🙂
Hi Khloe. I think ‘Wellies and Westies’ could be a nice, light little read. I’ll let you know once I’ve read it. (Westies are the little terriers, shown on the cover.) I’m keen to find out what it’s about myself! Have a lovely Sunday, too. ❤
Please do let me know after reading it 😁👍🏻 Finding it out yourself is always fun😉 Thanks dear!😘
Enjoyed getting to know your book likes. 🙂
Pompeii and the Falco books are ones I’d choose to read, Susan. I haven’t read the novella yet, so I don’t know what that will be like. I might hate it! haha The Lone Ranger books I just looked up to prove that Tonto was actually in books, not just movies. It was a fun, and a funny, tag to do. Some questions were far better suited to the young ones, not ancient ones, like me! lol Thanks Susan. 🙂
Interesting choices and an interesting game of tag – always love to see what other people are reading.
It was interesting to do. I had to search Amazon for a suitable novella, so I thought I’d download it whilst I was at it. I’ll have a look at it this week while I’m away (I’m up in Carlisle, our base for marching out daily to Hadrian’s Wall sites (with blog post in mind). As for the Lone Ranger…I won’t be reading those. I just like Johnny Depp! Thank you, Bekki. 🙂
LOL! Who doesn’t like Johnny Depp? Enjoy Hadrian’s Wall 🙂
I’m going backwards through my Reader here, Bekki, and didn’t realise I’d already told you I was up in Northumberland. As for Johnny Depp, he does seem to have a funny effect on women. 🙂
Lovely – shows how much you read Millie. That is fantastic. I wish I had more time to read good stuff.
Well, I haven’t read all those books – just two of them. The others are ones I looked up as having ‘summery’ themes, or to answer other questions. I downloaded a couple to my Kindle, but I haven’t had chance to look at them while I’m away this week. I’ll be back home on Monday, so we’ll see. I already have a very long TBR list. Thanks, Joyvelin. 🙂
Nice summer picks… Need to check these out 😀
I can’t recommend all those books, Galit, because there are some I haven’t read yet. lol And I don’t intend to read the Lone Ranger ones, ever! I did enjoy Pompeii, because I love anything about Ancient Rome, and the eruption of Vesuvius was such an important event in world history. I don’t think you’d like The Shell Seekers because it’s rather slow moving and uneventful. I only picked it for the summery cover. I can’t say I usually pick any specific type of book for summer reading – I just read the same things I always read. 😀
Yeah I know me too, I have my favorite authors and genre 😀
Girly summer stories aren’t exactly my thing, and many summer reads tend to be just that. I think of them as teenage books, to be honest and give them a wide berth. I’ll stick with my Vikings! 😀
Yeah I know, lol, I don’t read “summer books” as well, lol. Vikings are much better and fun to read. I love YA books but those who are written for a an older YA audience (if you know what I mean), but Robin hobb and other like her is beyond better read than any YA book out there 😀
I’ve never read any of that author’s books, but my daughter says she’s really great. I do like fantasy, but haven’t read any for ages. Right now, I’m struggling to find any reading time at all. I’ll pop over to read some of your posts as soon as my visitors leave this weekend. 🙂
Lol, take your time 😉 I know how hectic life can be.