Rick O’Shea: Put your beach towel away, you will want to stay in to read these

From Gaia Vince to Fern Brady and Maggie Armstrong to Cal Newport, here’s four books that cover all bases to take with you for a long weekend away

New cities in the Arctic: Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century. Photo: Phil Fisk

Rick O'Shea

I recently heard someone expound the theory that who you are when you are eight years old defines you for the rest of your life. “Piffle,” I thought.

When I was eight years old, I was nerdy, quiet and solitary, but hid it with occasional bouts of performing in front of rooms full of people. I’d rather spend a blistering summer day inside with my friends the Famous Five and the Three Investigators than “play outside with real kids your own age” as may have been exasperatedly said to me from time to time. We went down to Wexford on school holidays every year to a caravan by the sea owned by my grandparents. In the weeks before, I stocked up on friends.