Vacation! What book to bring?

So, we’re not going yet, or tomorrow, but sometime my wife Amber and I are going to Italy for a bit.

Saying when on here would be silly, since I’ve probably at some point posted up pictures of  things vaguely valuable that I own and don’t want to get robbed.  Unlike the people who bikesnob mentions here, whose inane ‘minimalism’ only seems to render the “I”, with all its deep anthropocentric associates,  to a little “i” – as in, of course, Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, Ithinkthisreplacesreallife, etc – I have things I like and don’t want to get stolen.  That biksnob guy has some great ‘read it at work’ appeal by the way.

But yes, Italy. I’ve never been for a more than a few days, and that was on tour with a band I’m in, and it was only in Northern Italy.  This trip includes Rome, Florence, Civita di Bagnoregio, Cinque Terre, and Volterra.  Amber did all the heavy lifting in terms of reading up and planning the trip so we’re not say, in a town on a day when everything is closed, or stranded in some small town because the bus doesn’t run on Sunday, etc.  For that I am eternally grateful.

I’m been learning about what I’ll be seeing – reading about Rome, watching documentaries about Michelangelo, etc.  But I’ve been having one hell of a time figuring out what book to bring.  I just finished reading A Place of My Own, only to discover I have now read everything Michael Pollan has published.  With my safety net of a good and stylistically reliable author removed, I’m floundering for something new.  This is where being only a Children’s Librarian has it’s downside – on a daily basis the majority of literature I’m checking out is for kids.

So Italo Calvino the Italian author? I love it, but maybe too dense for a vacation book. His only one that was pretty laidback was Numbers in the Dark. Plus, I’m a sucker for short stories.  I got John Mcphee’s Silk Parachute, and realized I might have to pack a dictionary as well.  I read enough chapters of The Tipping Point to realize Malcom Gladwell annoys me.

And I don’t need to get all the way out to this place, settle down with an excellent drink and start reading a book that annoys me.

Books on deck to consider include Consider The Lobster by David Foster Wallace, a collection of Best American Short Stories, edited by Alan Lightman, Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel, and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (an old professor of mine reccomended that one for it’s insanely awesome bad guy). Okay and maybe Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics, but the library didn’t have that. Although this guy makes that book seem pretty interesting.