With summer now officially upon the Northern hemisphere, it is time for many people to pick their holiday reading material.

One benefit of living in Australia is that I can sit outside at pretty much any time of year. That means my reading material doesn’t really have seasonal influences but when I do travel overseas I know that I will need something to keep me amused during a very long journey. I usually find myself gravitating towards titles that will guarantee a laugh, or which have been recommended by others. After all, if my wife also likes a book then we get double the benefit from the purchase. One of our favourites over the years has been Bill Bryson – he has a very amusing way of writing and we both still find his book about Australia hilarious, even though we’ve read it multiple times and have been to quite a few of the places mentioned.

For a lot of our friends who live in colder climates, picking books to take on their annual summer holiday used to be quite an important shopping trip. Since the introduction of the Kindle and other e-book readers, they can now do that shopping from the comfort of their lounge room and, if they want, can take multiple books on their travels without requiring excess luggage. I often wonder if that has made their selection process any easier as they aren’t as restricted to only taking one or two novels. Although a lot of e-books by famous authors cost basically the same as the paperback version, there are plenty of alternatives out there at lower prices making the options even greater.

That fact, combined with my own experience as an independent author, means I am going to investigate at least one ‘unknown’ writer for my next trip. How about you – what type of summer holiday books do you love?

‘Evershades’ is a fiction novel. Suitable for ages 18+, it is available as a paperback or an e-book for Kindle, Apple iPad and Apple iPhone.