I usually take either one huge one (one time it was A Problem from Hell: American and the Age of Genocide - that got me left alone. Blackhawk Down, nsm. And I never even left the airport that time...) or several thin ones. Compilations of short stories or essays work well too. I get a little ADDish when I'm travelling.

I just got a huge box of new-to-me books from the parents. There's a theme happening. Read Naked in Baghdad the other night. And then there is Bookseller of Kabul, Kite Runner and Storyteller's Daughter.

Don't remember if Reading Lolita in Tehran is in this shipment. Pretty sure The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is.

I have plenty to choose from for the next trip.

I'm debating hauling either Gravity's Rainbow or Infinite Jest on the plane with me next week. On the one hand - both are very heavy books. On the other - 5.5 hour flight, both ways, direct. I'll need something to occupy my brain.

I took a bunch of books with me on a business trip that was supposed to last a month. The trip got extended to two and a half months. Was I panicked at the thought of being away from Hubby that long? Nope, I panicked at the idea of running out of books. I shipped a separate box home, because I'd found books I'd been meaning to buy for my library. I left a grundel load for the boarding house's loaner book shelf.

I usually figure out what books I'm taking on a trip before I think about clothes.

Gravity's Rainbow is definitely a time-eater, Juliana. I'm a fast reader, and I usually take weeks to read it.

juliana, Gravity's Rainbow makes Finnegan's Wake look like a lightweight; it eats the brain as much as it eats the time. I don't know if you've read Pynchon before, but if not, be warned: he's very much a love it or hate it proposition. I've never met anyone who was lukewarm about him.

And I just got a birthday prezzie from Kristin T, and it's on now sitting on my incunabulae shelf, where I can not only keep the cats away from it, but where I can drool over it at a safe distance without risking spotting it with my own saliva.

So what is the prezzie? Is it incunabula?

after having read many older people books since then.

Hee hee Polter-Cow, you mean books such as Harry Potter (I - V), anything by Tamora Pierce, and the Anne of Green Gables stuff? (Read in the past six months at least). Not that I haven't read any older people books, or anything.

I enjoyed The Weekend because of the mysterious hottie who turned out to be a long-lost twin brother, the mysterious poisoning by a friend, Mexico, the heroine was enjoyable, the whole first true love thing, and the bitchy sister.

Although in general I will agree that Pike's books tend to run together in my memory of them.

I forgot to add Remember Me to the list, as well as The Last Vampire although the sequels to both weren't as enjoyable.

And I just got a birthday prezzie from Kristin T, and it's on now sitting on my incunabulae shelf, where I can not only keep the cats away from it, but where I can drool over it at a safe distance without risking spotting it with my own saliva.

I'm so happy you like it! Aimee, it was a special 50th birthday find of an older book that I knew Deb would like. I won't give away what it is, though. If Deb wants to share, she can. If not, that's fine too.

Not that I haven't read any older people books, or anything.

Well, actually, the Harry Potter books have a very accessible style to them, since it's usually an omniscient narrator. With Pike, if he's not writing first-person, he's often writing third-person teen, so a lot of the language feels off.

I forgot to add Remember Me to the list

I got that one for fifty cents and read it recently. It's still pretty cool. Another good one was Die Softly. Need to find that one. They actually had Witch, but it was the icky re-release cover, so it pissed me off.