Unfinished tales: The books you never finished reading

Bermuda shorts. Check. Swimming togs x2. Check. Factor 50. Check. War & Peace, Ulysses. Ch... Hold it a minute.

Taking Tolstoy’s masterpiece or James Joyce’s head-wrecker to the beach may not be such a good idea, even if you want something a bit more challenging than the forgettable holiday read.

For starters, it’s not easy trying to manhandle the 1,222 pages of War & Peace while lying in a deck chair lathered in sun tan lotion.