Let me admit a dreadful flaw: I am not a good recreational reader. I read slowly, effectively reading out loud, but in my head, trying to suck all of the juice out of what I am reading. I would love to claim that this was built into me by my professional experience, but actually it has always been a problem.
My only involvement with a book club requires one book to be read each year, and I retain an unparalleled track record of not even reading that one book in most years.
Also, my access to books on this tour is limited. Even if the airlines will let you carry the weight, there's only so much a guy can lift. So I have to buy as I travel, donating my books to my hotels when I leave. Sadly, this limits me to what a bookshop might stock in a foreign language, which is tricky as I average a book per week out here, made easier my the low level of travel-trash literature I'm chewing through.
The book which astonished me is one I would never normally read, but for a recommendation from a friend. Open is the title of Andre Agassi's memoirs, and it is a page turner. For a light read it is super, and to Wimbledon-only tennis fans as well as the hard core, but it also leaves you with the clear understanding that
1. You can't be a tennis superstar without a psycho pushy parent.
2. You can't be a tennis superstar without being a psycho
3. You can't be a tennis superstar without a wilful disregard for your long-term health
4. Steffi Graf makes Felicity Kendal's character in The Good Life seem like the worst wife ever.
Recommendation: a definite buy
Currently I'm working through the rather more worthy "12 books that changes the world". This too is a buy, but only just. It's principal flaw is that it was written by Melvyn Bragg, whom I don't greatly care for. It has the same effect as reading Clarkson (I also read one of his), in that you invariably hear his voice in the writing which, in the case of Lord Bragg of Smugsville, Smugnesshire, is not ideal.
His choice of the twelve books is a bit patchy, but any list which includes The Wealth of Nations alongside The Rules of Association Football was always going to have, in the words of Peter Kay, a little bit of something for everybody.
The surprise is how structureless his writing is. Faulty potty training or something...