Long reserved for children, who enjoyed it moderately, holiday notebooks have been invading the adult section of bookstores for nearly 5 years. Far from being off-putting, these reasonably priced booklets provide entertainment, revise your knowledge or expand on different aspects of your general culture, but also and sometimes, above all, play! Something to reconnect with a “pleasure” of childhood while setting an example for your potential offspring. For the reader looking for a copy to his liking, the offer is abundant. In order to find your way around, here is an eclectic selection of ten titles in which everyone can find what suits them.
For three years now, we have been enjoying, every summer, the Cahier de jeux de langue française by writer and publisher Jean-Loup Chiflet, co-signed with author Anne Camberlin. This time again, the duo renews its purpose by offering new games, ranging from anagrams to crosswords, through rebuses or formidable dictations.
Always so pleasant, this notebook succeeds, it must be admitted, in causing serious grammatical perplexities, annoying spelling questions and somewhat mortifying quizzes on literary history, while effectively entertaining you to console you for your (rare, of course), errors. We never tire ! It should be noted that the two authors together decline the concept with a Cahier de jeux general culture, published by the same publisher.
* The game book: French language, by Jean-Loup Chiflet and Anne Camberlin, First, 63 p., €6.95.
At the crossroads of novels in which you are the hero and products derived from the idols of our childhood, here is a holiday notebook intended for fans of Koh-Lanta. And you just have to listen to the conversations between colleagues at the coffee machine to know that there are many more of them than you might think. The promise is ambitious: live the adventure of the famous television show mixing survival and strategy with its flagship events – the sloths, the poles, the mud… -, and its rites – the fight between the yellows and the reds or the eliminations at each board – while being quietly installed, pen in hand, facing his notebook.
We were a little dubious but in use, the concept is rather convincing even for the uninitiated. To find the winner, dozens of games of letters, logic, arrow words, crosswords, sudokus or puzzles, allow you to eliminate one by one the 22 adventurers at the start.
On the same theme: Addicts to entertainment programs will also be able to take advantage of holiday notebooks dedicated to Téléfoot, Fort Boyard (Solar) or even Who wants to earn millions (First).
* Koh-Lanta vacation notebook, by Fabrice Bouvier, Solar, 63 p., €6.9.
You are quietly installed by the sea, finally enjoying the lapping of the waves, the sun on your skin and the prospect of a good novel. When suddenly your kids start asking a slew of awkward questions. “Say, can shrimps scream?”, “How do you become a lighthouse keeper?”, “Who owns the treasures hidden in the ocean?”, “How fast does a sailing boat go?” “Why are there pebbles and not sand on the beach?”…
By immersing yourself in this mine of information devoted to the world of the sea, you will never be caught in the act of ignorance and will even be able to offer some of the games that complete each chapter to your offspring. This notebook in album format, illustrated by the satirical cartoonist Gab, is signed by Cyril Hofstein, historian and specialist in the seabed who manages to make sometimes pointed questions accessible to young and old alike.
*Cahier de vacances de la mer, by Cyril Hofstein, illustrations by Gab, Arthaud, 96 p., €9.90.
From the title of the crosswords – woman who flows from source in 8 letters -, to the quizzes – “How many times its size can the vagina expand during a report? ” – passing through the maze to join a threesome or the fill-in-the-blank text with a choice of “fumet”, “squirt” or “clito”: no need to draw a picture for yourself, the games in the Erotic (f)licky Words notebook are clearly not to be put among all hands.
The work, saucy and erotic, which stands on the border of the vulgar, therefore offers a multitude of games oriented to the undeniable creativity but also interesting selections. In particular a list of 10 well-found podcasts to listen to to “touch, learn, dream …”, “spicy readings” from the catalog of the publisher, La Musardine, but also compilations of discoveries unearthed in particular on Instagram.
*Erotic (f)words and other impertinent games, by Matthieu Vergote, La Musardine, 64 p., €10.
With The Woman in All Her Forms, Le Cerf, a very serious publisher in the humanities and religious sciences, continues its successful foray into the field of holiday notebooks. As in the previous opuses, the quality and rigor of the information provided are there. However, nothing boring in this pretty booklet which intends to embrace “all feminisms”. Thanks to the author, the journalist Catherine Golliau, this somewhat perilous bet turns out to be very successful.
From the mythologies of yesterday to those of today, from the housewife to the business woman, from the powerful to the predatory, we embark on the epic of women through the centuries. While we thought we were more familiar with these subjects, we finally fill in a lot of gaps in a light and educational way, thanks to spicy anecdotes, surprising statistics and varied games.
*The Woman in all her states, by Catherine Golliau, Cerf, 91 p., 12 €.
“Be serious, without taking yourself seriously”, such is the motto of this astonishing Freemason’s Vacation Book. In reality, there is moreover not one but three whose contents are adapted to the grade of the initiatory process of the reader, either apprentice, companion or master. Illustrated by François Morel, who specializes in Masonic humorous drawings and signed by Luc Apante, pseudonym of a former high dignitary of the Grand Lodge of France, these works are clearly intended for those who wish to embark on a Masonic commitment.
The uninitiated will obviously be a little lost, but the body of practical and symbolic knowledge presented here in the form of a quiz, the incisive humor of the illustrations, the subjects for reflection offered and their degree of erudition pleasantly tickle the mind and curiosity. . And we learn a lot about this order that arouses so many fantasies.
*The Freemason’s Vacation Book (available in three versions) by Luc Apante and François Morel, Dervy, 96 p., €11.9.
Do you always go on vacation with a Backpacker in hand and are a fan of cycling? This book is for you! Based on 28 cycling routes, from the roads of France to the Via Romea Francigena, which stretches over 3200 kilometers and crosses seven countries, the Book of Holidays of the Routard, special bike offers a very successful mix mixing games, anecdotes and culture general.
After reading, we know a lot about the history and practices of the bicycle as well as about French geography and its regional, culinary or artistic specialties. Light and unpretentious, this booklet undeniably makes you travel and smile even when you’re glued to your desk!
On the same theme: Tour de France, adult vacation notebook (Solar) and the traveler’s vacation notebook (Lonely Planet)
*Holiday book for adults, Le Routard, special bike, by Philippe Gloaguen and Stéphanie Bouvet, Marabout, 79 p., 8 € 50.
If you are not yet familiar with the superb magazine L’Eléphant (Scrinéo), this special issue will inevitably make you want to subscribe. We find in this holiday notebook all the ingredients that make the seriousness and the success of this quarterly which restores its letters of nobility to the catch-all expression “general culture”. Inside this beautiful mook-like booklet, we discover a clever and joyful eclecticism. Cinema, sport, song, science, politics, history, literature, geography: everyone can find an area in which to stand out thanks to a rather impressive diversity of activities. Quizzes of course, but also logic games, image games, association games, fill-in-the-blanks, crosswords or even calligram readings.
The humour, the relevance of the explanations and the catchphrases as elaborate as they are punchy arouse curiosity. The set mixes affordable questions and much more formidable ones – such as “how far does the largest ant colony in the world extend?” – so we learn a lot without feeling completely overwhelmed. A must !
On the same theme: The Indémodable Vacation Book for adults, from 17 to 117 years old (Chiflet et Cie).
*The Elephant, Holiday notebooks for adults: general knowledge games, Scineo, 96 p., 7 € 90.
Can you decipher this message “RTS JUTZC JXY HTRRNXXFNWJ-UWNXJZW”? Or identify in the middle of 8 cylinders the one that contains a vase and this, in just two weighings on a scale? We had a lot of trouble calmly solving the multitudes of puzzles that make up Sherlock’s Special Investigations notebook.
Divided into four distinct stories, it tests the reader’s patience but above all his sense of observation, his logical mind and his ability to deduce. A diversity of more or less diabolical puzzles that allows you not to be discouraged while having fun. All at a particularly low price.
On the same theme: The owl Criminal investigations (Marabout) with 12 crimes to solve.
* Special investigations of Sherlock, by Gilles Saint-Martin, Larousse, 72 p., 5 € 99.
Very popular, especially with seniors, exercises to naturally stimulate memory lend themselves perfectly to the holiday notebook format. Visual, verbal, number, episodic, semantic or procedural memory: Memory Booster by Stéphanie Bouvet makes you work on all fronts. In addition to being useful, it’s frankly entertaining and we are surprised to really get into the game regardless of age.
On the same theme: the version of Michel Cymes’ health magazine, Dr Good: holiday notebook.
* Memory Booster, by Stéphanie Bouvet, Marabout, 80 p., 8 € 50.
