27 h. ago Choose comfort, ditch boring and prioritise pleasure – how to find the perfect beach read

It’s easy to dismiss holiday novels as pulpy, but relaxing with a book you enjoy has huge health benefits. Here’s how to read yourself happy this summerLeo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina is a masterpiece. It has never been out of print. Luminaries from William Faulkner to Jilly Cooper have remarked on its brilliance. It is usually within the top 10 of any list of the “100 books you simply must read before you die”. However, I would argue that it’s a singularly poor choice of a book to bring with you for 10 days on the beach in Tenerife. Especially in hardback.I really tried. Every day, I’d read two or three pages before realising I’d read the same pages the day before, and it simply hadn’t stuck. I kept drifting off during the more complex descriptions of 19th-century property law. I simply couldn’t see what Anna saw in Vronsky; he seemed dreadful, just a slightly different kind of dreadful from her husband, Karenin. My arms ached, the sand seemed unusually gritty, and on day four, a...

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42 h. ago Shoppers say £30 'cooling' memory foam pillow is like 'sleeping on a cloud'

'First night using this and the most comfortable nights sleep I’ve had in ages!'

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63 h. ago Best pillows 2025, tried and tested for every type of sleeper

Whether firm or soft, cooling or super thick, the right pillows will help you sleep soundly

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3 w. ago Simba's new deal gives customers up to £836 of 'free' gifts on any mattress purchase

Customers can upgrade their bedroom setup with 'complimentary' memory foam pillows, mattress protectors and more

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3 w. ago Shoppers get £240 off memory foam mattress that 'feels like luxury without the price tag'

'Upgraded my mattress after bad back pain from my last one, best decision ever!'

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3 w. ago Geoff Dyer: ‘I don’t go to books for comfort; I have a memory foam pillow for that’

The author on Marxist revelations, returning to Don DeLillo and reading all of Elizabeth TaylorMy earliest reading memory Beatrix Potter when I was having my tonsils out. No point saying how much I loved her books because everyone does, but Roberto Calasso makes a brilliant point in The Celestial Hunter by pairing “two great moments in the Victorian age” when Darwin “linked human beings to primates” and Potter “distributed human behaviour among a certain number of small domestic and rural animals”.My favourite book growing up The Guns of Navarone. My first Alistair MacLean, the first of about 20 before I grew out of him at the age of 15. They were thrilling and addictive and it was possible, while reading, to visualise every scene so clearly (helped in part by the scene-enacting photos on the covers of the Fontana editions). Continue reading...

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3 w. ago Shoppers say back ache 'is gone' with this 'god send' memory foam mattress, now £230 off

Plus, there's a mystery discount at checkout with a special code

Economics

4 w. ago White Stuff shoppers say memory foam sandals 'don't need breaking in'

Both the black and pink versions of the sandals are still in stock

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