David Whitley looks into reading on the road, and tries to work out what sort of books enrich the experience.

I don’t regret many things (other than excessive alcohol intake the next morning) but one thing frequently hits me when I’m on the road. I’ll go somewhere surprisingly interesting, and the same regret strikes. “I wish,” I’ll think, “that I’d read up on this a bit more before getting here.” Everybody wants something different from their holiday reading. Some people want entertainment – page-turning crime thrillers that can be ploughed through in airports or on long, otherwise boring flights. I’m partly in that camp – anything weighty and worthy on a plane tends to be really hard work.