Real beach reading: don’t be shamed by the pundits into packing an inscrutable doorstop. Geordie Greig suggests holiday books you’ll actually finish. From the Times Online, July 30 2005.

“To forget where you are on holiday, and that is what a good book does, J. G. Ballard spins you off into hellish destruction and war in Empire of the Sun with the little boy — aka himself — surviving Japanese horrors in the Second World War (Flamingo, £7.99; offer £7.59).”