Barnes discusses John Updike

Julian Barnes was one of several writers asked by The Guardian to write about on the best books to travel with. His response was published in The Guardian on 23 June 2007:

"Like many others, I've taken Ruskin's The Stones of Venice with me to Venice, and failed to read a word of it there (relying on JG Links's Venice for Pleasure instead). That hoped-for matching of text to place frequently disappoints. The only time it really worked for me was a dozen years ago. I was setting out for a three-week book tour criss-crossing America. At Heathrow I bought John Updike's Rabbit, Run and started it on the plane. All reading problems became reading joys for the entire trip. I picked up each succeeding volume in a new city, my bookmarks the stubs of boarding cards ..." [Read Julian Barnes's full discussion of Updike's Rabbit tetralogy on The Guardian's Website]

Purchase John Updike's Rabbit books on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com