Girlbooker's Tea and Toast

I was waiting for a train the other day, and had a sudden flash of happy memory; a book I had read largely on public transport a few weeks earlier popped into my head and I enjoyed a brief moment of enjoying it all over again. (The book in question, in case you’re wondering is The Portable Veblen, one the best books you’ve never heard of, in my humble opinion). So this got me thinking about books and travel.   Are there certain kinds of books that are better suited to reading on the go than others? And if so, what are they? First and most importantly, it’s best to avoid deeply emotional tear-jerker books in public. I’m a big crier, and it really doesn’t take much to set me off so I need to be especially careful, but sometimes it’s just unavoidable. A couple of weeks ago, the woman standing behind me on the train was reading and working her facial muscles like a gymnast in order to hold back the tears. Personally, it just made me want to give her a hug and then become best frie...

Paris and New York are my two biggest dream destinations. “What about Tuscany?” I hear the Cliche Police ask. Well, maybe when I turn 50 I’ll develop  a sudden urgent and passionate desire to buy a Tuscan farmhouse and make lots of bean soup in it while I write my memoirs (which will consist of a combination of authentic Tuscan bean soup recipes and hilarious anecdotes involving me, the neighbours and a crazy misunderstanding about a goat).  But for now, my twin destination obsessions are Paris and New York. I’ve been to Paris several times but I’ve never been to New York, so I have to satisfy myself with reading books or watching things that have been set there.  I am actually pretty happy being an armchair traveller at the moment, and particularly enjoy devouring a book set in New York.   The longevity and richness of New York’s place in culture and literature is a big part of what makes it so mythical and enticing to an outsider like myself. One of my lit...