As you scuttle through the airport (hopefully avoiding airport rage lest you end up a gibbering mess at the security queue like me), there are two stops you need to make before you jump aboard flight FI532 (I just made that up, I've no idea where it goes. I hope it's somewhere nice).
First is to the duty-free. The international rules of air travel clearly state that it is illegal to fly without a Toblerone. And then you have to run at full pelt into the newsagent, bags dragged along behind you, rolling over the feet of people who don't have the reaction time of a cat (wait, did you remember to ask the neighbour to feed it while you're away?). Who needs all ten toes anyway.
Besides, you have an important task to complete - the purchasing of the holiday material. Maybe you'll opt for a bundle of magazines for the flight but when you flick the towel onto the beach or stretch out on the lounger by the pool, you'll need a fiction-y friend.
It's the perfect time to leave that heavy tome behind you and embrace some fluff. For the last year or two, you could be guaranteed to see copies of Fifty Shades of Thundering Tripe littered around holidays spots, copies discarded as quickly as Christian's underpants.
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Me, I get very excited when I find an old Marian Keyes (a book, not like her gran-aunt of the same name or anything) stuffed down the back of the cupboard before I go on holidays - I will myself not to remember the story line because nothing makes me feel like I am on holidays faster than Marian and a mojito.
And sometimes I get all Cagney and Lacey on it; I love Rosamund Lupton or Lee Child (my mother and I fight over who gets to run away with Jack Reacher). Or if I want something that I can have a little brain-gnaw on, Donal Ryan and Maggie O'Farrell fit the book bill.
So tell me, what are your favourite holiday reads? Is there a 'Gone Girl' equivalent that we all need to get our paws on this Summer? Do you go for light and entertaining or do you prefer a book that you've been meaning to really dedicate time to all year?
Tell us in the comments. And throw us over a piece of Toblerone, I can see the triangle in your cheek.
