DON HANY, ACTOR

Looking forward to: Ataturk: The Rebirth of a Nation by Lord Patrick Kinross. It's a biography that chronicles the beginning of Ataturk's career as a Turkish soldier through to his death in 1976.

Reading at: I might get most of it read up the mid north coast of NSW visiting family over the summer break and doing a bit of fishing. The rest I'll finish at home in bed, most likely.

Favourite travel or destination reads: Two titles you could class as travel are How to Build a Time Machine by Paul Davies (sort of a historical account about the possibility of interstellar travel in our lifetime) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Don Hany will appear in the telemovie of the Peter Temple novel The Broken Shore on ABC TV next year.

JOHN BELL, ACTOR

Looking forward to: I am most looking forward to finishing Clive James's superb translation of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Reading at: On the deck of my house at Killcare (on the NSW central coast) in the shade of a gum tree.

Favourite travel or destination reads: My favourite (recent) travel book is Simon Sebag Montefiore's wonderful Jerusalem: The Biography.

John Bell, AO, is the co-artistic director of Bell Shakespeare.

STEPHEN MAHONEY, ETIHAD AIRWAYS

Looking forward to: Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas - it's his latest and would seem to be appropriate summer reading.

Reading at: Holiday apartment at Sunshine Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Favourite travel or destination reads: Chef Luke Nguyen's latest book, The Food of Vietnam, combines travel and eating, two of my favourite things. A more mainstream choice would be Tim Cope's On the Trail of Genghis Khan.

Stephen Mahoney is senior manager, corporate communications, Australia and Asia Pacific, for Etihad Airways.

CHRISTINE COURTENAY, ADVENTURER

Looking forward to: The Black Doctor is an unpublished novel by Jacky Abbott who attended my late husband Bryce Courtenay's The Last Class writing workshop in September last year.

Reading at: Shipman House, a family-run inn on the edge of Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii's Big Island and home to the Captain Cook Memorial.

Favourite travel or destination reads: Arabian Sands by Sir Wilfred Thesiger, whom I had the good fortune to spend a few hours with at his home in London in 1999 - he was the ultimate nomad.

Christine Courtenay, AM, is the marketing representative for Guest Apartment Services, Paris, and director of the Australian Himalayan Foundation.

VINCE SORRENTI, COMIC

Looking forward to: I am looking forward to reading a book about food. I often find myself travelling vicariously through chefs such as Anthony Bourdain, Rick Stein, Antonio Carluccio and Jamie Oliver. I recently got a copy of Italian Food by Elizabeth David. British chefs and foodies often refer to her books and her travels as seminal in the "discovery" of European cuisine. This book was written in 1954 - can you imagine?

Reading at: In a rented holiday apartment on the Gold Coast in between chasing my four kids (all under 10) from pool to beach to family-friendly restaurants. (Another round of chicken nuggets and chips anyone?) Fortunately there will be a kitchen. I hope to use the adults in our group as guinea pigs for some of the ideas I find in the [Elizabeth David] book.

Favourite travel or destination reads: It probably isn't regarded as a travel book but I loved the cultural journey of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts and his elaborate and vivid descriptions of almost every aspect of life in Mumbai. I'm craving to have a spicy curry at Leopold's Cafe.

Vince Sorrenti is a multiple winner of the Mo Award for Australia's best

stand-up comic.

ROB CARLTON, ACTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER

Looking forward to: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.

Reading at: I'll be reading it on holiday in Tasmania ... so presumably will start on The Spirit of Tasmania ferry. Wish me luck for a smooth crossing.

Favourite travel or destination reads: I always read a book from the area in which I'm travelling. So on my recent trip to Prague I read some Franz Kafka, including Metamorphosis and a selection of his short stories. In Budapest, I read Marcus Aurelius's Meditations (he supposedly wrote some of it while visiting Aquincum, the capital of Pannonia, a former Roman province).

Last year, Rob Carlton won the Silver Logie for most outstanding performance by an actor in a leading role for his portrayal of Kerry Packer in Paper Giants: Birth of Cleo.

THOMAS KENEALLY, AUTHOR, HISTORIAN

Looking forward to: Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior - I've had it so many months on standby and she is one of my favourites.

Reading at: My home, by the beach in Manly.

Favourite travel or destination read: I recently read Patrick Leigh Fermor's The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos. In the 1930s he walked from Holland, across a Nazifying Germany, through the Balkans and all the way to Istanbul.

Tom Keneally's most recent novels are The Daughters of Mars and Shame and the Captives.

ALLA WOLF-TASKER, HOTELIER, RESTAURATEUR

Looking forward to: My bedside table is always full of books, mostly new and weighty cookbooks. For leisure reading, I look to good juicy fiction and I have Tsaplin's Testimony by Igor Gelbach, a thriller set in Soviet Russia, on top of the pile.

Reading at: (My hotel and restaurant) Lake House is open 365 days a year and my reading is mostly in the wee hours. But when I do have time to spare, sitting on my balcony overlooking the valley and village of Daylesford.

Favourite travel or destination reads: Almost anything by AA Gill, such as his The Angry Island about Britain.

Alla Wolf Tasker, AM, is the culinary director and proprietor of Lake House in Daylesford, Victoria.

STEFANO MANFREDI, COOK, WRITER, RESTAURATEUR

Looking forward to: The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett. It's the biography of Gabriele d'Annunzio, a romantic idealist and poet and writer who became an influential right-wing revolutionary, and helped set the stage for Italy and Europe's descent into fascism and war.

Reading at: I'm hoping to escape Sydney for a few days to my hideaway at Way Way on the NSW north coast.

Favourite travel or destination reads: I'm a big fan of Sybille Bedford and I love Pleasures and Landscapes. She was a contemporary of Elizabeth David. When it comes to a Brit writing about Italy and its food, Bedford is by far my favourite. Pleasures and Landscapes is a series of articles she wrote for Vogue, Esquire and other magazines. The piece in the book called The Quality of Travel is something I read over and over as a touchstone of what a great writer can achieve.

Stefano Manfredi recently celebrated 30 years of service to the Australian hospitality industry.

SUSIE LIM-KANNAN, FRHI HOTELS & RESORTS

Looking forward to: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I met the author in 2005 when I worked for the Perth International Arts Festival as a publicist. I saw the movie a few months back - it was complex, with different plots skilfully woven into the story and so beautifully made.

Reading at: I will be spending a week in Bali and I plan to read by the pool in our villa.

Favourite travel or destination reads: A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. I bought the book before a trip to Provence and it became a sort of guidebook to plan our itinerary. I would be in a cafe and imagine the characters from the book having breakfast next to me.

Singapore-based Susie Lim-Kannan is director of public relations, Asia-Pacific, for FRHI Hotels & Resorts.

NICOLE BACKO, BRITISH AIRWAYS

Looking forward to: The Cuckoo's Calling - I'm intrigued at the prospect of reading a crime novel by JK Rowling that was published under a pseudonym.

Reading at: As a busy working mum there are limited opportunities to read a good book but I'm taking my family to Singapore and Thailand for some R&R and will be making good use of BA's Club World beds to get in some reading before relaxing by the pool. Let's hope my daughter sleeps on the flight.

Favourite travel or destination reads: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - what a fabulous insight into one woman's experience of eating and enjoying life in Italy, finding spirituality in India and romance in Bali.

Nicole Backo is the regional commercial manager, Southwest Pacific, for British Airways.

BRAD PACKER, FOUR SEASONS

Looking forward to: I've just started a book written by a friend of mine, Lisa Sweetingham. It's Chemical Cowboys, the true story of the discovery of, and eventual focus on, the ecstasy trade by the (US) Drug Enforcement Agency. It's fascinating, and reads like a fictional thriller - hard to believe it's all real. It's long, so I'll enjoy it slowly through the holidays; I like treating myself to a few chapters at a time to make it last.

Reading at: I tend to read most when flying so on a plane over the holidays is most likely.

Favourite travel or destination reads: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, set in southern India in the 60s, and The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield, an incredible and mystical story of a man in search of meaning who ends up in Peru uncovering ancient insights. It's a beautiful story of awakening and realisation.

California-based Brad Packer is public relations director at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Bora Bora (Tahiti) and Hualalai (Hawaii).

GAYNOR REID, ACCOR

Looking forward to: And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini - I cried my way through his first two books (set in Afghanistan), The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns and adore his prose; and The Other Hand by Chris Cleave, which has been sitting by my bedside waiting for uninterrupted reading time.

Reading at: I plan to read it on Lady Martin's Beach when we return to Sydney (from Singapore).

Favourite travel or destination reads: Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar - his writing makes you feel you are right there beside him.

Singapore-based Gaynor Reid is director of communications, Accor Asia Pacific.