Summer reads.

My bookshelf. Magnifique, non?

Lazing about on the beach all day everyday gets a bit tiring. Laying around at home in the garden gets a bit boring. Here are a few books to pass the time. They aren't all philosophical or totally mind-blowing but they are nice easy reads with good plots.

Holes by Louis Sachar: a simple book to read but rather captivating. A boy called Stanley Yelnats is wrongfully arrested and is sent to a camp where he has to dig a large hole under the boiling hot sun each day. He is told it is 'character building' but Stanley soon realises there is more to it. The main storyline parallels things that happened in the past and you eventually see how everything is intertwined.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman: an amazing semi-historic fairytale. If you want charming princes, damsels in distress, feisty swordfights, storming castles, evil villains, love stories and humour wrapped up in a fantasy world then this is the book for you.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon: of all the books in this list, this has probably had the most coverage in recent years. The narrator is a boy with Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism). One day he discovers his neighbour's dog lying dead in the garden. The book follows Christopher as he tries to uncover the mystery and we enter his world of noise, colours, unemotion and mathematical quirk.

The Beach by Alex Garland: probably made famous by Leonardo Di Caprio. We follow a backpacker, Richard, in search of his paradise among the beaches of Thailand, but after a while his 'Eden' begins to fall apart. The chapters in this are short, which makes it easy to read. You can simply take this as an adventure novel or you can read between the lines.

Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton: there are 3 books in this collection; The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree and The Folk of the Faraway Tree. If you didn't read these when you were a child then you missed out! Moonface! Saucepan man! The gist of it is some kids who find a magic tree. At the top of the tree is a portal to a different land each day. It's full of magic and adventure and will take you down memory lane.

PS Bestseller books that I DO NOT recommend? Twilight and PS I Love You. I could have written those! And perhaps I will. My dream last night was some great inspiration for a novel.