26 March 2009

Reading on the Road: My Vacation in Books

Days I was away: 10.
Books I packed: 10.
Of those, books stowed specifically so that I would have something to read on the trip back: 2.
Books left in airports or on airplanes: 3.
Books fallen into the ocean or smaller bodies of water: 0, impressively.

Days before departure my mom called me to figure out what books to bring so that neither of us would have read anything the other had: 16.
Titles she mentioned which I had already read: 3. (Disasters averted: 1?)
Books I ended up borrowing from her: 7.
Books I borrowed from my brother: 0, but it was nice of him to offer.

Percentage of books I brought that were nonfiction: 0.
Percentage of books my mom brought that were nonfiction: 22.2.
Percentage of books my brother brought that were nonfiction: 75. (Being HOW WE DECIDE, THE ASSASSINATION BUSINESS and the recent Michael Lewis book PANIC!)

Books my mom read on the trip: 10, I think.
Books my dad read on his Kindle on the trip: 1.59 at last count (he's still on vacation)
Times I made fun of him for the day he couldn't take his Kindle to the beach because it was out of battery power and was forced to settle for, oh no, a magazine: 1,000,000,000.

Book most commonly spotted being read by members of our trip: Leif Enger's PEACE LIKE A RIVER, and yes, there is a logical explanation for that.

Books I returned home with: 5.
Of those, books that were originally mine: 3.
Books I bought on the trip: 0.
Books waiting for me in various packages when I finally got around to sorting out my mail, which was quite recently considering how much I love mail: 10.

Books I read on the trip: 14, being:
Louise Kean, THE PERFECT 10
Lawrence Block, A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES
Martha Moody, BEST FRIENDS
Francesca Delbanco, ASK ME ANYTHING
Robin Gerber, ELEANOR VS. IKE
Steven Gregory, THE DEVIL IN THE MIRROR
Sheri Holman, THE MAMMOTH CHEESE
Alison Lurie, FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Azadeh Moaveni, LIPSTICK JIHAD
Marian Keyes, WATERMELON
Advaita Kala, ALMOST SINGLE
Janet Evanovich, PLUM LUCKY
Mary Kay Andrews, HISSY FIT
John Grisham, THE APPEAL

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reading "Eleanor vs.Ike." I feel in good company based on your ambitious list!