Eats, Reads And Leaves

BA Books (C) Nick Morrish, British AirwaysA good read is one of the essential ingredients for a relaxing holiday, according to 80 per cent of holidaymakers who always pack one for their travels. Despite this, around 600 books and 1,400 kindles are left on board British Airways flights every year.

The most common is The Holy Bible, accounting for six per cent of books left on board. Some of the more unusual books which have been found include notebooks, personal diaries, wedding sketchbooks and even a cheque book!

The survey found that books were still the most popular form of reading with three in five taking a book, compared to one in five taking an e-reader. Women are also more likely to own an e-reader (20 per cent) compared to men (15 per cent).

British Airways has compiled a list of the top 10 books most commonly left on flights over the past three months, as inspiration for good holidays reads this summer:

1. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Fiction, Thriller)

2. King and Maxwell Series, David Baldacci (Thriller)

3. The Fault in our Stars, John Green (Novel)

4. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty (Business/Economics)

5. Alex Cross, Run – James Patterson (Thriller)

6. The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton (Novel)

7. Flash Boys, Michael Lewis (Non-fiction)

8. Fifty Shades of Grey (Freed), EL James (Romance)

9.  The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle (Novel)

10. The Racketeer, John Grisham (Thriller)

Some of the most popular biographies found on board were by John Bishop, Muhammad Ali and, no surprise during the Wimbledon Championships – tennis player Rafa Nadal.

For those prone to losing books, British Airways has a selection of audio titles in its extensive library collection. It includes Jennifer Saunders biography Bonkers; My Life in Laughs, Virginia Woolf The Mark on the Wall, Roald Dahl The Great Automatic Grammatizator, Anton Chekhov The Chorus Girl and Charles Dickens Great Expectations among many others available on selected long-haul flights in July.

  • Miss B

    Belinda Wanis, aka Miss B, is a Belle About Town who likes to bring a little bit of style into every aspect of her life. An experienced journalist with over 20 years in the industry she turned to the web, creating Belle About Town in early 2010, to fill a gap for tech-savvy stylish women who want the best life has to offer at their fingertips. She loves a decadent cocktail bar, a beautifully cut dress, cultural getaways, quality over quantity and is partial to Asian-fusion food. A globetrotter, who has lived in Australia, the UK and Denmark, she enjoys holidaying in the sun and you can often find her on a beach in Thailand or on shopping breaks in Sydney or New York. But her first love is, of course, London!

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