Thursday, December 15, 2005

Well-Read but Pretty Chilly

I am very excited that I will be going home to New Jersey for Christmas, not so excited about the 5 plus hours of air travel, not to mention the 2 plus hours on the front end to get to the airport and check in (at the crack, of freakin’ dawn, I might add) and then the additional wait time on the other end to pick up baggage and what not. Also, not really excited about the cold weather. But you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you get to go home and see your family. YAY! And on the good side, I will have several hours of (hopefully) minimally interrupted reading time on the plane. One of my favorite things to do is plan what reading material I will take on trips and although, I haven’t started packing my bags yet, I do know that I will be taking several books. I know I am taking Watchmen because I have never read it and…hey shutup! I said I was a nerd, I never said that I was a good nerd! I am also very much looking forward to reading The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford. Ever since taking a class on death and dying in college, I have been interested in…death…and…dying. Well, more specifically, the funeral industry. A lot of people are really freaked out by it all but once you’ve met a handful of coffin makers and morticians, it’s a pretty interesting field. And Despite the fact that I think an awful lot of what is done is superstitious and a sham, I did meet some really nice people in the funeral business. Besides, when you read books about death on airplanes, people tend to leave you alone.

I was thinking about taking Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke with me but I am slightly concerned with the size and weight of it. Maybe if I have room in my suitcase, I will slip it in just in case I don’t finish The Scar by China MiĆ©ville. I really liked Perdido Street Stations even if at precisely the half-way point of this 500 page (or so) book, it turned into something completely different.

I also picked a book from UglyTown Press to take with me, but I can’t remember which one. Maybe it was Rat City but I am not sure…hmmm.

Speaking of rats…RATS! I didn’t pick a book of poetry! Hmmm…I’ll have to think on that one. Maybe a little John Donne or…Christoper Marlowe. It’s good and when people see me reading it they get the mistaken impression that I am smart. Heh.

Oh and there is also that biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine I wanted to read…and the first trade collection of The Amazing Joy Buzzards and I really need to finish Epileptic.

Can you see where this is going? I guess I’ll just have to leave all my clothes behind and only take books. It’s going to be mighty cold in New Jersey but I will be well-read!

4 comments:

Chris said...

Now all of your unvisited links are the same color as the background. You're right about HTML sucking.

I really like Watchmen, but I wasn't as keen on V for Vendetta (although I'm looking forward to the movie). Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell was great, but it is a big book (although there is a trade paperback out).

Let us know what you think of The Scar.

Jodi said...

Wow, you are smart. I took a bunch of books with me on my trip and read nothing. I suck. I'm so behind on my book club book, it's not even funny.

Link hell! I hope your smart brother can solve this one!

Anonymous said...

i laugh at your puny 5 hours. i'm looking at 17 hours in a minivan.

and despite what mr. p says i liked v for vendetta (although its not on your reading list so why am i debating it?) david lloyd is tremendous and whoever came up with that color pallet is a genius

Chris said...

Links look great now! Very nice color scheme.

I did really like V for Vendetta, but I guess I was over-hyped and expected to like it more. It only came to mind because they showed the movie at Austin's Butt-Numb-A-Thon and I was reading reviews of it (stupid studios moved it from the fifth of November to sometime in March).