A summer of lists: Boris Johnson's Scoop to the Space Station's library
"In the case of 'Goon Squad,' which sold slowly for a long time despite the good reviews, those 'best of 2010' lists were pivotal, and made the book really sell." Jennifer Egan
Like many people, I’m rather partial to a list. Indeed, they’re at the heart of a lot of the books I write, whether that’s actual lists of books (A Book of Book Lists), dates (Art Day by Day), food (Menus That Made History) or music (A Soundtrack to Life). Indeed, the next book project that I’m gearing up for - which will focus on Wales and the Welsh language – will require a decent list for its foundations.
In the book world we’re entering one of the regular list seasons as the newspapers pile in with the collected thoughts of the literary world’s great and the good on the Best Holiday/Beach Reads. Most of the usual suspects will be trundled out and reel off the same names or familiar classics which are not at all what I’d really want to read on the beach or on holiday. Major bowls of sour grapes aside, I feel it’s one of those chances to champion lesser-reviewed titles or smaller publishers that the media often fail to take. My list this summer will include Flashman and the Dragon (I am re-reading the series in chronological rather than publishing order), Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Brendon Chase, and The Lammas Hireling.
In fact it’s not stretching the truth to say that what I most enjoy about holidays is making a list of books I want to read while I’m away. I spend far longer over this than deciding what to wear (and if I’m honest, even choosing where I’m going). Deliberating between ploughing through the literary flavour of the month against something left unread for years on the bookshelves or rereading an old favourite is as vital as remembering to pack my medication.
I’m not alone. One of the annual traditions of Barack Obama’s presidency was the announcement of his annual summer holiday reading list. This was his final list in 2016.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
And he’s certainly not the only statesman to pack proper books rather than an e-reader. Last year’s poll by the Publishers Assocation of parliamentarians’ summer reading intentions included the following MPs’ choices:
An Extra Pair of Hands by Kate Mosse (Sir Ed Davey)
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque (Sir Gavin Williamson)
Fantastically Great Women Who Worked Wonders by Kate Pankhurst (Rachel Reeves)
The Prime Ministers by Steve Richards (Sir Lindsay Hoyle)
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (Boris Johnson)
Looking further back, Napoleon was arguably the best read Emperor the world has seen. Keen not to be separated from reading matter while on campaigns, he commissioned various travel libraries from his personal librarian Antoine-Alexandre Barbier - which contained hundreds of volumes and covered military tactics, history, geography and religion as well as novels, poetry and plays. He also ordered smaller, more manageable travel libraries in wooden boxes resembling a large book measuring 15 by 10 inches (one of which is pictured below). These were stocked with French classics (including five volumes of Corneille and Voltaire, four of Racine) in smaller format, each bound in roan and tooled in gilt. As well as for his own use on campaigns, he gave sets to his generals.
The key challenge of coures is to make sure you don’t run out of good reading material while you’re away and be forced to fall back on the books randomly curated in your holiday cottage. On his ‘Discovery’ expedition of 1901-04, as well as plenty of food and warm clothes, Captain Robert Falcon Scott also put together the impressive National Antarctic Expedition Library. Each section was arranged alphabetically by author. Its catalogue, including the precise location of each book on board, runs to 34 pages of closely-typed entries.
As a result we know that Scott kept all the Sir Walter Scotts and a good chunk of the travel books in his private cabin. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were on the Mess Deck, as were the popular hunting novels of Major George John Whyte-Melville, and 35 volumes of Punch magazine. The Dickens – including A Christmas Carol – were in the Ward Room, and Lieutentant Michael Barne had Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat in his own quarters.
The question of access to books is even more complicated for some travellers. The astronauts on the International Space Station are obviously busy people, but even they need time to relax. In addition to a well stocked film cupboard, there are also plenty of books in their informal library.
Some are brought up by the astronauts – Susan Helms crammed Gone With The Wind, Vanity Fair and War and Peace into her carry-on - others by space tourists such as billionaire businessman Charles Simonyi who brought Goethe’s Faust. Here’s an abbreviated list of the others:
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Alien Infection by Darrell Bain
The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
The Universe at Midnight: Observations Illuminiating the Cosmos by Ken Crosswell
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
Failure is not an option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and beyond by Gene Kranz
Mars Is No Place for Children by Mary Turzillo
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
The Jeeves Omnibus by PG Wodehouse
And finally here’s a rather sadder list. Not all books that arrive with their owners at hotels get to go home with them. The Travelodge chain produces an annual list of ‘left behinds’ in all their hotels. It also used to put together a separate one of the most ‘popular’ books that didn’t make it home, but discontinued this in 2017. However, ‘books’ in general still make it to number 3 in the current top 10 (behind chargers, laptops, phones and Kindles) and the most recent list featured several, including:
A first edition of Watership Down
A handwritten book of family cake recipes
A collection of Roald Dahl books
A 50 year old football sticker book
I’d be interested to hear what you’re planning to read this summer. Especially if it’s one of my books.
What I read last week: Strong recommend for Index, A History of, by Dennis Duncan even though it sounds like it’s for a very niche readership. Very readable, it felt a bit like a linked series of lectures (don’t let that put you off either – suspect it makes a great audiobook if that’s your thing).
What I’m reading this week: I’ve just started on Oliver Darkshire’s debut, Once Upon A Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller (it’s an uncorrected proof, the actual thing isn’t out until the autumn) and it’s as great as the Sotheran’s Twitter feed that he’s made famous.
What I’m reading this week: Jenny Uglow’s Words and Pictures: Writers, Artists and a Peculiarly British Tradition got bumped by the Darkshire above but only temporarily.