I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago about vacation reading. Whenever we go on any sort of vacation, I pack the following:
- my copy of Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, and
- a random assortment of other books, only a fraction of which I will actually crack open before returning home, but really, a girl needs options, doesn’t she?
The friend I was talking to always takes Crime and Punishment when he travels. Yesterday I witnessed someone toss a copy of the complete works of C.S. Lewis into his bag. Does anyone else have a desert island book? Does it depend on the nature or destination of the vacation? Do you just toss a copy of Cosmo into your suitcase and call it a day?
I always bring my Portable Dorothy Parker, but end up reading very little of it, and picking up some trashy popfiction at the airport.
I’m with Lindsay. I like to read what my mother refers to as “magazines for illiterate people” (i.e. the ones with lots of pictures and few words) whilst on vacation. Really, anything that you don’t need to pay very close attention to.
(SERIOUSLY? CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? Is that person vacationing at Alcatraz?)
I often have trouble with this one, deciding what to bring and hoping it will last me through the entire vacation.
I do throw in random books (sometimes including inspiring non-fiction that I ambitiously pack but rarely read). However, most often my standard fallback is “The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende. Not that I (consciously) believe that it will actually NEVER end, but it is sort of a comforting title when you fear running out of reading material. Plus I’ve been through it many times and there always seems to be more weird stuff in there…
Another bad habit of mine is finding the library at the bed & breakfast (or friends’ house, cottage, etc.) immensely more enticing than what I brought along. This often means that I get too involved in the book and rush to finish it so that I’m not left hanging – all the while missing out on what I’m told is the “actual vacation” that my friends and family are enjoying. Hmmm.
I do that too! I always pack some sort of educational non-fiction book and then realize upon unpacking it that it is entirely unsuitable for beach reading.
My travel reading staple used to be “Mrs. Polifax”. Now that I have read the whole series (I guess that means I’ve traveled a lot)”I’m now going through the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency”
I usually peruse the fiction shelves at the library and back about five to eight books, some chosen just for their cover picture and the blurb at the back. Then I crack them open and realize exactly WHY I had never heard of it and fall back to my emergency copy of the Hobbit. Sigh. Why don’t I ever learn?