"It's only three nights!" he said.
Maybe it's because my job requires me to read lots very quickly. I can't make myself savor books or magazines at a normal pace anymore.
So I bring lots, and it's heavy. Traveling is the only time I wish I had a Kindle.
“Freedom.” I bought this because I’m always looking for good short fiction. Also, I’m interested in rights, and this was compiled by Amnesty. But they didn’t have to hit the reader over the head with it. The cover practically begs: PLEASE READ THIS VERY SERIOUS BOOK ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS. There are three forwards about rights. Each story is paired with a relevant article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In case you didn't get the point, they also reprint the whole declaration. Too bad about the packaging, because there are some good pieces. They benefit from being very short -- the briefest are only four or five pages. It was OK in an earnest, depressing sort of way. The Guardian calls it a book that's too good for its own good.
“The Year of the Flood” by Margaret Atwood.
The Nov. issue of Vogue. I rarely read fashion magazines, unless I’m in a waiting room. The only one I buy is American Vogue. My rule: If Anna Wintour hasn’t edited it, I’m not spending money on it. As a kid, I aspired to reading “Vogue,” which was a step up from its plebian counterparts – the kind that told you what skirt hid a big butt, or how to apply mascara. Vogue was not instructional; it was aspirational.
Unlike most fashion mags, American Vogue actually has stuff to read. This month’s cover is about a remake of Fellini’s “8 ½”, starring Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard and Judi Dench. There’s humor (they sent a fey Vogue writer on a gruelling outdoor adventure); a random essay on Hedy Lemarr; another on horse riding; and quite a few pages on contemporary American painters. The coverage touches on design, travel, films, books, plays.
This issue had an outdoor theme. When I was younger, Vogue made me long for evening gowns and urbane life. Now, it’s the opposite. It makes me fantasize about a country home, a garden, a dog, a horse, living near a city with vintage clothes and live theatre. (I did grow up in Connecticut).
Of course, it’s still a fashion magazine. It’s frivolous, indulgent, vain and filled with impossibly thin girls in ridiculous outfits. It’s escapism, but intelligent escapism.
“The Book of Other People”. This is a collection of character sketches from authors like Nick Hornby, Jonathan Lethem and Zadie Smith, who edited it. I haven’t finished it yet. As I do with the New Yorker, I read the cartoon sections first. I liked the two by the comic artists Daniel Clowes and C. Ware.
***
Marc the Metrosexual may have only brought one book to Thailand, but it was the French version of Les Bienveillantes (The Kindly Ones) by Jonathan Littell, which weighed in at 900 pages.
4 comments:
Aside from the portability aspect of a Kindle, the other night I was on the phone with a friend in L.A. who told me about a book he was reading.
Five minutes after getting off the phone, I had the first chapter of that book on my Kindle for free. I read it before going to bed. Woke up the next day, decided I wanted to read the rest of the book, had it 30 seconds later. For 10 bucks. ($30 list, $20 discounted price in Amazon, probably HK$300 if and when it ever shows up in HK.)
The almost instant accessibility and the price are two powerful arguments there IMHO.
And now I'm on the road with 20 books, total weight under half a pound - and can add to that without adding to the weight or bulk.
Can't wait to get into the year of the flood. I'm so starved of reading books - surfeit of chinese and non fiction. Michael Slater's Charles Dickens is lying packed and waiting for my birthday!
For the human rights one, the best is the children's version "We are all born free"
http://www.amazon.com/Are-All-Born-Free-Declaration/dp/1845076508/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228441110&sr=8-1
How much do you manage to read when you are on holiday? I took away two books when I went away for 10 days recently. I spent no more than 30min with each, while waiting in airports.
Hello Bangkok Dreamer. My dad said the same thing after reading this post. "You didn't 'wan' (meaning 'play'). All you did was read books!" His tone implied that he was less than impressed.
Sometimes Marc and I have action-packed holidays, but this was not one of them. We really just needed somewhere outside the city, which was quiet and pretty, to rest. We've had alot of stress recently -- work, financial and health-related - and just wanted to get away.
We didn't leave the Evasom the whole time. Literally. We slept 10 hours a night for three nights straight! So lots of time for reading.
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