Reading Roulette

I am in the midst of selecting my reading material for Canada.

I leave for points north in a week, and I want to be prepared.

Last year, during my week in Georgian Bay (a.k.a. – heaven!), I read four plus books; numerous magazines (of the long article variety); and the NYT and Toronto Star on an almost daily basis.

I was very proud of having read four books in one week.

Four good books in one week.

I would like to replicate that accomplishment. It is not the number that is so important, but rather the books themselves.

Thus, I have been checking out recommended summer reading lists; perusing the popular new fiction/non-fiction shelves at both the library where I work and my local public library; and thinking back over books my friends and family have suggested over the past year as “good reads.”

This is the pile I have sitting next to me right now:

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (gave this book to my sister and her husband for Christmas; they both loved it -- as did at least two other of my book reading/loving friends)

Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky (again, a book I gave to my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas and that has been recommended to me by several other close friends)

Books by Larry McMurty (a brand new book I just read about and am dying to read, as it is all about books and book collecting by someone who is passionate about books; heck, the cover alone with jam-packed floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves is about enough to make me orgasmic!)

When You Are Engulfed by Flames by David Sedaris (his latest, and he always cracks me up!)

The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis (a rather odd, fantastical book recommended just the other morning on NPR; this is a stretch, but the book is slim, so I may give it a try. The author is described as a modern day Kafka; I am not sure if that is supposed to be a compliment or not. I have never gotten over reading The Metamorphosis [Die Vervandlung] -- in the original German!)

The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark (she is probably more famous for her first novel, The Great Stink. The dust jacket blurb says: “a consuming, passionate, darkly humorous tale set amid the clamor and chaos of 18th century London.” Sounded interesting, and different.)

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (I actually have already read this book, a few years ago, when it first came out, but I volunteered to lead a discussion group for the Summer Reading Project at my university in August with incoming freshmen. And I thought I should refresh myself. Although I am not so sure I want to do so while on vacation! )

I have some other contenders:

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton (the autobiography of a Trappist monk and his struggle for spiritual belonging; I read about this in Sue Monk Kidd’s Firstlight and promptly went out and bought it)

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (“one man’s mission to fight terrorism and build nations… one school at a time;” this book comes highly recommended by several close friends)

I cannot possibly read ALL these books on my one week vacation, but I will probably take at least six.

In case.

I may end up reading really fast. And I don’t want to be without a book.

I will never forget the vacation to Mexico where we rapidly ran out of books. I even read my husband’s books and he read mine. And we were still out. This prompted a trip to the hotel giftshop, where the rack of paperback books was outrageously overpriced (this was back in the late ‘80s). We finally ended up picking the thickest book on the rack – a rather trashy book about Mexico and the Mayans, full of sex and violence – simply because it was the thickest book on the rack.

Yep, we were buying a book for price per page! We wanted a book that would last the rest of the trip.

Never again!

There is also the possibility I won’t like one – or more -- of the books I have brought enough to want to finish it. Which doesn’t necessarily mean it is not a good book, just that I wasn’t in the mood at that particular point in time to read it.

Or it could mean it was not a good book.

Whatever. I want plenty to choose from.

I do not want to be left in the lurch without a good book to read.

We spend our days kayaking, swimming, sunning, boating, eating, drinking, talking, reading, talking, reading, reading, reading. My early mornings are devoted to writing. With no TV or Internet or other multimedia distractions, we all get an immense amount of reading done. Even though we keep so active and busy during most of the day.

It is a reading heaven.

I love it!