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.

I won't give away what it is, though. If Deb wants to share, she can. If not, that's fine too.

Perfect condition original Book Club edition of Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, which is the book of his - along with his passion for cats and his dislike for facism - that makes me forgive all the macho. I love that novel with every inch of my beating heart, because Paris is my other home city (Florence has become the third head of that triad) and very few non-French writers got Paris the way Hemingway did.

And Kristin is angelic.

very few non-French writers got Paris the way Hemingway did.

"In Paris we eat brains every night" is the opening line of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? t /Lorrie Moore likes carrots