on choosing a book...

01 June 2008

What book shall I bring to the UK? I've been hashing out my options and I'm just as, well, overwhelmed as ever. There are so many good books, how can I choose the one to accompany me on all of my upcoming adventures? I was discussing this over dinner with my family last night. We've been eating out on the deck since the weather is so nice, especially in the evenings, and the air is quiet enough to carry its armful of jasmine scent over to us (we have jasmine vines intertwining the deck rails as well as honey-suckle, which the hummingbird enjoys). I like how we always pull out a table cloth first, before setting the table.

But anyway, back to the books. Lewis' Space Trilogy? George MacDonald's two-part series about--what was it, the Fisherman's Wife? Howard's End or Marcel Proust's Swann's Way? A Faulkner book might be good, since that requires at least two readings in order to make any sense of it; that would be efficient. What about a collection of short stories, such as those by my beloved Eudora Welty or some by Flannery O'Connor or Jeffrey Archer? Shall I give Walker Percy another try? I didn't much like his Last Gentleman, but perhaps The Moviegoer is better. What about a page-turner by Dorothy L. Sayers? I want something that will hold my interest, but not hold it too much and tempt me to read when I should be experiencing the culture or chatting with people; something I haven't read before but something that will be comforting and familiar nevertheless. Goodness. Something like Lanterns on the Levee perhaps?