There are lots of companies which will sell you a pre-designed package Interrailing tour - but we decided to tread our own path. We spent a few weeks poring over maps and rail planners, scouring booking.com for hotels, and working out where we would stop for laundry!

This is a practical look at our itinerary, how we booked the journeys, and the travel snags we faced. If you think you can do better, please write your own blog post.

London to Amsterdam

The Eurostar itself is the most civilised way to travel. Get on train in city centre, a few hours later get off train in a foreign city centre.

The pre-travel experience isn't great. St Pancras is, sadly, dangerously overcrowded. Tried to get into the Premium lounge but even with 1st class tickets we were rebuffed. We also had the wrong sort of Amex for access.

Also annoyingly, there are only limited 1st class seats available for Interrail passengers. So our choice was 1st class with a change in Brussels or standard direct. We went direct so we didn't have to faff with a change. The seating in modern Eurostar trains is fairly spacious.

Amsterdam to The Hague & Back

The Interrail app made this simple. Go to the journey planner, pick a train, add it to your journey.

The massive Aztec Code opened the gates, and we strolled on to a train and sat upstairs. The return was just as simple.

Amsterdam to Frankfurt

Our first attempt at buying reservations. Annoyingly, the Interrail app punts you out to their website. Even more annoyingly, they cheekily add a booking fee - we found out later that DB's website (which has an English version) is fee free.

There's also no ability to select your seats with the Interrail website.

Again, a painless journey. The vegan currywurst was more than adequate for train food. The police passed through the train at one point checking passports - so useful to keep your papers close to hand.

WiFi was free and had a bunch of entertainment services if you get bored of looking out the window.

Frankfurt to Zurich

Frankfurt station has a 1st class lounge - but not for Interrail passengers. Thankfully the main station has plenty of seating.

The night before departure, the Interrail app said seat reservations weren't necessary, but the DB website recommended them. Reservations were easy in the DB site and it let us pick our seats - only 6 were showing as available. We got on and the train was packed, so it was certainly worth the few Euro for a reservation.

No police checks but, on departing Basel's Swiss station, the guard checked passports.

Zurich to Brugg & back

A quick hop over to visit a castle. No barrier checks at Zurich's station. It is quite large, so worth leaving a few extra minutes to walk all the way down to the platforms.

Incredibly roomy 1st class on the upper deck.

We walked all the way to a minor station, hopped on a train back to the city.

After walking for an hour to a little bar where we met some friends, we found another little station to take us home. We didn't even have time to climb the stairs before we were back!

Zurich Cruise

The various benefits of the Interrail ticket aren't always obvious. We went on a lake cruise and were pleasantly surprised to discover that we got 50% off the 1st class tickets. We sat in the sunshine and took in the surrounding glamour.

Zurich to Prague Sleeper

This was one of our anchor journeys. 10 weeks before departure, we booked a private sleeper compartment.

We arrived at the station an hour early and had a slightly nervous wait for the train to appear on the departure board. Confusingly, there were two sleepers listed in the app, with subtly different routes but the same departure and arrival times.

Turns out, the train splits, with half going to Prague and the rest elsewhere. The train arrived about 15 minutes before departure, which was a little unnerving!

The private carriage had four free bottles of mineral water and some slippers, which was a nice touch.

Beer and wine was available to buy. There was a vegetarian breakfast, but nothing vegan other than a bread roll and a bottle of fruit juice.

Sleep was possible, although the starting and stopping of the train is quite disturbing.

No border checks. So we stepped off into the city centre.

Prague Public Transport

We paid about £11 for unlimited trams, buses, and metro for 3 days. Well worth it!

Prague to Bratislava

Annoyingly the Interrail app doesn't let you select seats, so it is always a hop off to the provider's website to select from a seating map. I wouldn't mind, but Interrail have the temerity to charge an inflated price for seat reservations plus a booking fee.

I found it was cheapest to book reservations directly on https://CD.cz - note that they have shitty customer service for when things go wrong.

For example, our 1st class carriage was cancelled! We received an email after we had boarded changing us to 2nd class. Not ideal but we eventually battled through the crowds to get to our seats. Well, somewhere close to our seats.

No border inspection, but the ticket checker wanted to make sure our IDs matched our tickets.

WiFi was a bit rubbish, kept disappearing, but I was eventually able to submit a refund request for our seat reservations.

Bratislava to Budapest

A 10 minute delay in departure led to a 20 minute delay in arrival, but the 1st class carriage was available. We each got a free bottle of water. No toilet paper or hand driers in the loos. No passport checks at the border.

Budapest Public Transport

An utter failure! Despite the machine being in English, we just couldn't work out how to buy a single bus ticket. So we walked.

Budapest to Vienna

Slightly confusingly there are multiple stations which go to Vienna. Neither of which were the station we arrived at!

The Interrail app, once again, wouldn't let us book seat reservations - so I registered for yet another train provider's website.

Keleti station has a 1st class lounge. Basic drinks and snacks available - although the only vegan food was pistachios 😆

The lounge was right next to the Vienna train's platform, which made for a relaxing wait.

At seat dining service, although the web-based ordering system was a bit slow. Had a surprisingly decent tofu curry and beer.

No passport checks and only 5 minutes late.

Vienna Public Transport

Very easy to buy a 24 hour pass - all the machines spoke English. Tickets were pre-validated so we could jump on and off throughout our stay.

Vienna to Graz

The OBB lounge is available to 1st class Interrail holders. So a relaxing wait for the train. Some snacks and drinks available.

Departed and arrived on time. Only thing of note was that a couple of the toilets were out of order.

Graz to Ljubljana

Graz station also has a 1st class lounge. Our Interrail tickets didn't work on the automatic scanner, but the ÖBB agent took pity on us and opened the door. Plenty of snacks and drinks available.

One of the few journeys where we couldn't choose our seats when reserving. As a result, we were assigned to seats at opposite ends of the only 1st class carriage. Luckily, it wasn't very full so we grabbed two free seats next to each other.

No WiFi on the train, which was odd. That said, the quality of WiFi has been highly variable on these journeys.

The dining car was cute but cash only. The only vegan thing on the menu was a salad.

Train was old and rickety, came in a few minutes late.

Long wait at the border and a couple of ticket checks - but no passport inspection.

Ljubljana to Zagreb

Train arrived on time, but no 1st class compartments. A fair few disgruntled Interraillers. No WiFi on the fairly decrepit train. But the 2nd class carriage had little compartments of 6 seats, so it wasn't too bad.

No power sockets, so glad I had my big battery with me. No air con, although the windows could be dragged open. No food or drink that I could see either. Primitive toilets.

Tickets were checked once we were over the border, but no passport control.

Czech railways, who sold us the 1st class reservation, refused a refund because we couldn't prove there was no 1st class! They refused to check with the train operator. So I filed a credit card dispute.

Zagreb Public Transport

Like other cities, there's a 24 and 72 hour pass for unlimited rides. We got the Zagreb Card which also came with entry to a bunch of museums.

Trams were plentiful. No need to show your ticket unless an inspector appears. Stops were announced in Croatian and English. Some trams were clean and modern, others ancient and filthy.

Zagreb to Stuttgart Sleeper

Another "tent-pole" journey booked weeks in advance. We managed to get a private berth for two - but without a toilet / washing facilities.

Zagreb station has left-luggage lockers which were big enough for our massive packs.

Train arrived 40 minutes early. Unfortunately, there was a problem without our coach so, after much shunting, a new one was procured. Rather than a 2 person berth, we got a 6 person couchette - albeit all to ourselves.

No WiFi, but plenty of phone signal along the line. One toilet didn't have soap, the other had no paper. Choose wisely!

At 0415 we crossed the border to Germany. Whereupon the police boarded, knocked loudly on our door, and demanded to see our passports.

I'll be honest, it wasn't the best quality sleep I've ever had! Breakfast was a pre-packaged chocolate croissant. No vegan option, but we did get some bottled water.

Given the reservation was over €200, we were somewhat underwhelmed!

Stuttgart Public Transport

Find a machine at the U-Bahn, select English, pay a few € for a day pass. As with every other country there are no ticket barriers and you don't have to present your ticket to the driver.

Stuttgart to Ludwigsburg & back

Cheeky little day-trip on our last full day. Trains every 10 minutes. 1st class available on the way out, but not the way back. But, for a 13 minute journey on a clean and modern train, it was hardly noticeable.

Stuttgart to Paris

The trip I'd been dreading. Given Deutsche Bahn's reputation for poor timekeeping, I was worried we'd miss our connection in Paris.

We reserved the seats before we started the whole adventure as Interrail said they were selling quickly. Fair enough for a peak time morning service and, indeed, the train was crammed.

The TGV 9576 was a bit shabby. Even in 1st class some seats were torn and there were mystery stains on the ceiling. The luggage rack had just about enough space for everyone's bags.

The Interrail app was pretty good at keeping us informed of the likely arrival times. Although it thought the train would arrive late into Stuttgart instead it came early and departed on time. It also said there could be mandatory bag inspections and to allow an extra 20 minutes for boarding. That didn't happen though; we just strolled straight on.

On train WiFi worked once the train departed. There were some locally hosted podcasts, movies, train information, and food ordering.

Literally the only vegan option was grated carrot. Bienvenue en France!

Some of the toilets had no paper so, just like China, remember to carry your own!

Paris to London

Much like the journey out, this was booked months in advance. That allowed us to get first class seats for the journey back.

A quick walk in the rain from Garre L'Est to Nord. The standard route takes you up a flight of stairs, which isn't ideal with luggage. The walkway between the stations isn’t yet complete. Luckily there is an alternative route.

The Eurostar terminal only lets you in 2 hours before departure. The lounge is only for Premier Mega Extra Special customers, so we sat in the main station.

Once on the train the "Plus" seats aren't noticeably more comfortable than the standard seats although they are a bit larger.

Departure was on time. As we were travelling in "Plus", we got a complimentary meal. There wasn't a vegan option, so I spooned the yogurt off my salad bowl. The cabin crew found me some margarine for my bread. Wine was nice!

Train arrived perfectly on time. But disembarking was delayed because of another train on the opposite platform.

Statistics

The Interrail Android app has a nifty little summary of all the journeys you've taken. I'm not sure if that time accounts for delays (probably not) - but the rest seems accurate.

This is the "heat it" - it's about £30 on Amazon and is fucking magic.

It's smaller than a thumb-drive, fits on a key-ring, and has no moving parts. Weighs practically nothing either. Perfect for flinging in your beach bag.

The science is simple. Localised hyperthermia stops pain. So you plug it into your phone, the app automatically opens, dial your preferred setting, and wait a moment for the device to heat up. Then you push it against the bite, wait a few seconds, and the pain stops. That's it.

The app is surprisingly good! It's well laid out, translated properly, easy to use, and doesn't seem to send back personal data. Would it be nice if it were open source? Sure - and I'm sure the protocol isn't that hard; it's literally heating an element and flashing an LED.

But that absolute joy is that, because it's USB-C, it will work on any Android device. Plug it in to your Android based eReader if you like. Same with your tablet and phone. I didn't need to remember to bring anything special to the beach - all my gadgets worked with it.

I'm not going to show you photos of my disgustingly bitten feet - but I can tell you that the (mild) pain of 10 seconds heat completely stopped the itching. If you're prone to bites - and don't want to spray noxious chemicals everywhere - this is brilliant.

Our previous trip was a 3 week road-trip through Australia, so this time I opted for an all-inclusive break in the Canaries at an adults-only hotel. I spent a week lying in the sunshine, eReader in hand, pausing only for the occasional cocktail.

I thoroughly recommend this sort of holiday. If you have a "staycation", there will be all sorts of little jobs to distract you. Laundry, phone calls, making your own food. Having nothing to do, no commitments, is a superb way to read without distraction. I often find that if I read a book over several days, I get confused. I forget characters, or can't remember the conclusion to an academic argument. Reading all at once is such a joy.

(Aside: yes, I know I'm privileged. I have the resources to fly somewhere warm, a generous leave policy at work, and am happily child-free.)

Something I discovered about reading books in quick succession is that I need to alternate my reading. If I read two fiction books in a row, my mind treats them as a single novel. So I flip between fiction and non-fiction. I also swap fonts between books to help with the transition.

This year, I'm only reading books by women. Looking back over my previous reviews, I mostly read male authors. So this is an attempt to correct this imbalance.

(OK, I've cheated once this year by reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld Imaginarium - but that's a picture-book, so doesn't count. Right?)

If you'd like to see what's on my to-read pile (or want to buy me a book) my reading list is on Amazon.

Anyway, here are the eleven books what I read...

The Entrepreneurial State - Mariana Mazzucato

★★★★☆

This book debunks the myth of the State as a large bureaucratic organization that can at best facilitate the creative innovation which happens in the dynamic private sector. It argues that in the history of modern capitalism the State has not only fixed market failures but also shaped and created markets, actively investing in new technologies and sectors that private investors only later find the courage to move into.

A profoundly important book. Your iPhone - and most other high tech stuff - is based off state-sponsored research. For every Venture Capitalist saying "the free market made this possible" there is an army of publicly funded developers. Sometimes, in the case of GPS, a literal army!

It makes a compelling case for the funding of basic and experimental research and development. We need long-term planning, rather than short-term profit chasing.

My only criticisms of this book are based on me not reading many academic books. I don't understand how a reference that just says "Smith (1904)" is helpful to anyone. It is also repetitive - I suspect because it is a collection of related essays, rather than a unified book. I also wonder whether it is normal for an author to continually cite their own work.

Either way, it clearly presents a well-researched argument and exhaustively demonstrates its veracity.

Buy it now: Amazon Author's Site Publisher

Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor

★★★⯪☆

The first book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History.

This is stupid amounts of fun! A roaring adventure through time. Doesn't bother getting hung-up on paradoxes - or science - but goes straight for the heart of history. Historians!

Specifically, historians fightin', drinkin', and shaggin' their way through the space-time continuum.

There are several points where the book could have ended satisfactorily, with suitable cliff-hangers. But each subsequent chapter brought more fun. I'm not sure I have the energy to read all 9 novels in one sitting - but I'm looking forward to rejoining the gang on my next holiday.

Buy it now: Amazon Author's Site

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism - Shoshana Zuboff

★⯪☆☆☆

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a deeply-reasoned examination of the threat of unprecedented power free from democratic oversight. As it explores this new capitalism's impact on society, politics, business, and technology, it exposes the struggles that will decide both the next chapter of capitalism and the meaning of information civilization. It shows how we can protect ourselves and our communities and ensure we are the masters of the digital rather than its slaves.

Possibly the worst book I've read all year. It would be twice as good if it were half as long. It would be a hundred times better if the author hadn't confused polysyllabic words with an effective argument.

The worst thing is - I think I probably agree with most of this book. But it is so turgid and (I hate to use this word) hysterical that I don't think it will produce meaningful change.

The author clearly sets out how surveillance has become the lifeblood for modern internet companies. I fully agree with her analysis. Although it is written in such a convoluted fashion that I doubt most people will make it through the first few chapters.

Next, it moves on to advertising. Again, I agree that targetting advertising is a nuisance. I don't think it is particularly evil - but I block it all anyway. There's no argument presented - we just have to take it on faith that targetting is bad.

I found myself skimming large chunks of chapters in an attempt to find a sentence which made sense. Here's a typical bit of academic-babble:

We may yet see the founding of a new synthesis for a third modernity in which a genuine inversion and its social compact are institutionalized as principles of a new rational digital capitalism aligned with a society of individuals and supported by democratic institutions.

I've read that several times and I'm still no closer to deciphering it. The whole book is like that. Purple-prose utterly lacking in simplicity.

Another section deals with population control. We're told that in the future, our cars will be tied into surveillance systems. If we drive dangerously, or miss a payment, they'll be disabled.

At which point, I found myself thinking "...good?" I mean... if you're a bad driver, what's wrong with putting up your insurance premiums? If you're lumped in to a high-premium demographic, why should you have to subsidise the prices of your riskier cohort? Perhaps you can explain the problem to me - because the author didn't.

The book mentions the story of the repossession agent who helped crowdfund car repayments for a delinquent couple. This was presented as a heart-warming tale - but I found it chilling. Rather than the impartial laws of mathematics, people have to be telegenic and sympathetic in order get out of debt. Somehow, that's presented as the preferable option.

Finally... Well, there is no finally. There's no list of tips for how users can protect themselves (download Firefox and use an adblocker would be my advice). It's just a pure emotional howl of rage. Perhaps that's cathartic for some, but it doesn't change the world.

This book is important. Far too important to be this badly written.

Buy it now: Amazon Author's Site

Sorcerer to the Crown - Zen Cho

★★★★☆

Winner of the 2016 British Fantasy Society Award for Best Newcomer. Shortlisted for the 2016 British Fantasy Society Award for Best Novel. Shortlisted for the 2016 Locus First Novel Award. Sorcerer to the Crown is the first in Zen Cho's thrilling magical adventure series, the Sorcerer Royal Trilogy.

This was an absolute delight to read. Magic, racism, and sexism, wrapped together with international politics.

It is, basically, fan-fiction for the "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" universe. With a dash of Neil Gaiman's Stardust. In courtly Olde Englande magicians preen themselves despite the fact that English Magic Is In Peril!

Yes, it is derivative, but it is so much fun that I'm prepared to forgive it. There are no big surprises - the baddies are obvious bad and the plucky young girl is rewarded for her vim and vigour. It's an entertaining universe to spend time in.

Buy it now: Amazon Author's Site

The Guilty Feminist - Deborah Frances-White

★★★★⯪

Why do we find it so hard to say 'No'? What does poker teach us about power structures? How can feminism be more inclusive? The Guilty Feminist will challenge you, reassure you and empower you to see the world differently.

A fantastic book. Even if you've listened religiously to The Guilty Feminist Podcast, or seen the author's solo shows, there's plenty of new material in here.

It's a powerful and inclusive piece of work. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about modern feminism, I guarantee you'll find something new - and breathtaking - in there.

It'll get you angry, fired-up, and hopeful for the future.

I stopped highlighting passages halfway through, because it feels like every other sentence could be pasted on a t-shirt. This is the one which resonated the most for me:

If you’ve been raised with running water and had it every day of your life, you will feel entitled to it. Hot and cold water from a tap doesn’t occur in nature, so this is a privilege you’ve always known that’s come to feel like a right. If your water got turned off today, you’d phone the council. If it wasn’t back on in forty-eight hours you’d be tweeting, and if it wasn’t restored in a week you’d be writing angry letters. At no point would you think, ‘Well, I guess we don’t have running water any more. Where’s the closest river? I guess I’ll have to walk down there with a jug on my head.’ Although many people around the world live like that every day, it would almost certainly never be acceptable to you because running water is your standard, your normal, your expectation. Entitlement is the residue of privilege.

Buy it now: Amazon

Alone Together - Sherry Turkle

★★★★★

Technology has become the architect of our intimacies. Online, we fall prey to the illusion of companionship, gathering thousands of Twitter and Facebook friends, and confusing tweets and wall posts with authentic communication. But this relentless connection leads to a deep solitude. MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues that as technology ramps up, our emotional lives ramp down.

A profound and moving book. It neatly describes how online socialising tickles some parts of our needy brains, without actually fulfilling them. At times, this book is touchingly naive - we're no closer to having the social robots that it predicted - but the sentiment is completely correct. We all want to be loved and will anthropomorphise anything we can.

The strength comes from the narrative encounters with the book's subjects. Each statistic is neatly paired with an emotional anecdote.

It will absolutely change the relationship you have with the little dopamine-spurting icons you see in your social media feed.

Buy it now: Amazon Author's Site

Sapience - Alexis Lantgen

★★★★★

What kind of life will we find in the depths of Europa's Oceans? What kind of life will we allow an AI with human level intelligence? The ten stories in Sapience: A Collection of Science Fiction Short Stories explore these questions and many more.

A delightful - and weird - collection of sci-fi shorts. All loosely tied together by the looming moon of Jupiter.

A couple were a little too grim and visceral for my liking. But each was compelling and perfectly composed.

Buy it now: Amazon Publisher

The Pursuit of William Abbey - Claire North

★★★★⯪

A young and naive English doctor, William Abbey, witnesses the lynching of a local boy by the white colonists. As the child dies, his mother curses William. William begins to understand what the curse means when the shadow of the dead boy starts following him across the world. It never stops, never rests. It can cross oceans and mountains. And if it catches him, the person he loves most in the world will die.

I love Claire North's writing. This latest novel follows her regular template - a person with uncanny abilities has to survive a world which wants to abuse their talents.

It's a long and winding tale, almost a travelogue. It gradual ratchets up the tension and horror building to a satisfying conclusion.

There's also a lovely bit of fan service which vzcyvrf gung zbfg bs ure obbxf gnxr cynpr va gur fnzr havirefr!

Perhaps my only criticism is that it's a little long. I guess it just represents excellent value for money.

Well worth reading her previous novels. "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" is sublime. "The Sudden Appearance of Hope" is excellent. "The End of The Day" is magical. And 84k is pretty good too!

Buy it now: Amazon Author's Site

A Short History of Myth - Karen Armstrong

★★⯪☆☆

Karen Armstrong's concise yet compelling investigation into the history of myth takes us from the Palaeolithic period and the mythology of the hunters right up to the 'Great Western Transformation' of the last 500 years. She shows us that the history of myth is the history of humanity, and our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, link us to our ancestors and each other.

A crisp and meticulously referenced work. But, as the title suggests, all-too-brief. It tracks the development of Palaeolithic myths to their modern counterparts. But it feels like the reader is already expected to know the details of each one.

It left me hungry for more - which I guess is the point. But at times I felt I was reading the Wikipedia excerpts of major works.

Buy it now: Amazon

Something Beginning With - Sarah Salway

★☆☆☆☆

Written in brief entries from ‘Ambition’ to ‘Zzzzz’ Salway's confident debut novel chronicles the existential ups and downs of British 20-something Verity Bell. The alphabetically arranged mini-chapters make for an inventive and episodic narrative, as Verity muses on her career .

For some reason I purchased this in 2013 and left it 7 years before reading. I wish I'd left it 70.

I don't usually read sappy romantic / emotionally manipulative novels. And this is why. It's a sad and pathetic story about a set of sad and pathetic characters. I felt nothing but contempt for them and their predicaments.

I suppose, if you want to feel smugly superior to someone making worse life-choices than you, this book would do the trick.

Buy it now: Amazon

The Memory Illusion - Julia Shaw

★★★★★

In The Memory Illusion, forensic psychologist and memory expert Dr Julia Shaw draws on the latest research to show why our memories so often play tricks on us - and how, if we understand their fallibility, we can actually improve their accuracy. The result is an exploration of our minds that both fascinating and unnerving, and that will make you question how much you can ever truly know about yourself.

Possibly the most disturbing book I've read. Your mind is nothing. Your memories are mailable. Everything you think you remember can be trivially rewritten. Oh, and Dr Shaw can scramble your brain with nothing more than her superpowers words.

I've had a hard time reading academic books recently. So I was most encouraged by the intro:

I live by this philosophy of explanatory parsimony myself, though of course it does sometimes come at the cost of explanatory adequacy. In other words, when I explain concepts by using analogies, stories or simplifications, I always risk losing some of the nuances of the inherently complex issues under discussion.

The book is beautifully laid out, and has a light tone which pushes through some of the drier aspects of neuroscience. I loved the way it ran through the history of memory - right up to cutting edge research.

I completely recommend this book. And I have fond memories of reading it. I think.

Buy it now: Amazon Author's Site

I am a Grade A+, certified, undeniable plonker.

The man in the hire car office looked at me with barely concealed contempt. Fair, really. He'd asked for my Driver's Licence and I'd collapsed to my knees at the sudden realisation that the slim plastic card was 1,700 miles away from the Canary Islands.

"I am sorry sir, but there is really nothing I can do."

My wife was hobbling around on crutches due to a sprained ankle and we were staying in a villa literally off the beaten track. A week of getting taxis everywhere would be expensive - assuming they could even find our lodgings!

Then, inspiration struck! I remembered that as part of the changes to the UK Driving Licence, the DVLA had created an online portal to allow you to share your licence information with hire car companies.

I ran to the only spot in the villa with WiFi, connected my phone, and hurriedly entered my information into https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence and was instantly rewarded with...

A blessed PDF containing all my information and a code with which to view the information online.

Would that be enough? My wife - who is far more intelligent, practical, and resourceful than I - suggested that I check directly with the hire car company's head office.

Woo!

Yet, another taxi back to the airport. The gruff gentleman had been replaced with an amiable woman who, on presentation of my credentials sadly sighed and said "Ah, no. It is impossible. Full licence only."

I pleaded with her and showed the email from her HQ. She sighed again and dialled the phone. There was a period of intensely fast Spanish, some of it shouted. It culminated with "¿Si? ¿En serio? ¿Si? ¿Estás seguro? OK!"

She put down the phone, looked me in the eye, and said "The British are very strange. Everything on the Internet!" She duly took down my details, photocopied my phone, and handed me the keys to a turquoise Citroen.

So, a million thanks to the digital elves at DVLA. Their dedication to making the UK a leader in online infrastructure provided me with tangible help when I needed it most.

Me reading a Kindle on the beach....

Last year, I took a mixture of eBooks and physical books away with me. This year, I'm only taking eBooks.

That's where I need your help, gentle reader. Which books should I take? Which books do you recommend for a beach read?

Criteria

1. eBooks only. Liz & I have a Kindle and an Elonex 511EB - happy to have eBooks in any format (epub, mobi, txt) and convert them. Would prefer to avoid PDF.
2. I like a wide range of books - although I lean towards Sci-Fi. Here's what I read last year.
3. No Dan Brown.
4. Nothing that will make me angry. As much as I want to read the latest Heather Brookes book about how disfunctional British justice is, I'm on holiday to relax. I'm relying on the sun to make my blood boil - not my choice of book.
5. I've started to get rid of all my paper books - but you can see a list of everything I have read on Anobii.com.

Over To You

So, what are your top picks for holiday book? Let me know in the comment box bellow.