Trip Books

[pen_grunt]

Picking out books to go on trips is fun. I'll always remember that I read The Count of Monte Cristo in the airport in Amsterdam; The Known World on a beach in Lithuania; Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by the pool in Mexico. Things like that get etched in your memory. I like having book-place associations.

So what to read in Spain and Morocco and London? I downloaded a bunch of things to my Kindle. Don Quixote, some other stuff... Of course, Don Quixote alone would be (nearly) enough for a two week vacation. I never read as much as I think I will. But I must have at least a half-dozen other backup books. Pre-Kindle days I would be taking all the books with me, knowing I would likely only read a few. Now I have thousands to choose from on my Kindle and, of course, I'm bringing a backup paperback just in case. (The book hoarding urge/book panic drive never quite goes away, you know.)

It still makes me book-nervous. What if I want to read something I don't have? What if the books I've picked aren't good? I fight the urge to toss in two or three more paperbacks...just in case.

What would YOU want to read on such a trip?

I have:
Don Quixote (Spain!)
For Bread Alone (Morocco!)
Gone Girl (American Thriller!)
Mortal Instruments (American Sci-fi/fantasy!)
Crime and Punishment (Russian! ...?)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Gaiman!)

I'm considering:
Some Mil Millington for British dry humor
Some Tahar Ben Jelloun for more Morocco
Some Roberto Bolono for more Spain
The Regeneration series

And if I want to look like an asshole in Morocco: White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves.

Comments

[tediousandbrief.livejournal.com]

I think I took like 5 books to Europe when I went for three weeks, two of which were paperback text books for the class I was taking. I always overpack on books because what if I don't like the book once I start it!

So I totally feel this pain and understand this.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

There are never, ever enough books along.

There are always too many books along.

Both these statements are absolutely true for me.

[tediousandbrief.livejournal.com]

I understand and resemble that remark.

[i12bmore.livejournal.com]

< Jealous of fast readers. There's no way I could finish more than one book on a vacation of that length.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

It's not that I'm such a fast reader...it's that I have big, unrealistic aspirations!