When I’m about to head out for vacation, naturally I’m stressed as anyone else: did I get everything done at home? have I made up for my potential work absence? am I forgetting to bring something?
Invariably, there’s an issue with one of the items above. But what adds to my stress as a book nerd, is of course what books I should bring, and then the everpresent “how many books should I bring.” One never wants to carry too many, because books are quite a weight. I know people do their e-readers, but I do as much reading on paper as possible as I stare at screens quite enough. That’s still not the big thing with books that gets me going before a vacation, however.
Whatever book I’m currently reading, I try to hurry up and finish. I want to bring a fresh book on a plane, out in the sun, whatever I’m doing. I don’t want to be stuck in a spot where I’ve got 100 pages left, and I have to lug that around on my trip. So I hurry through whatever I’m reading as fast as I can… and a lot of times I can’t make it, and one of the most irritating things in the world as a result, is having that book with 30-50 pages left, and carrying it around for the read. It’s a silly, trite thing to be sure, but it gets me almost every time I’m about to leave for somewhere.
Friday, I’ll be off to Phoenix, AZ for Spring Training to watch the Oakland A’s. I’ll take lots of pictures and blog about it. Hopefully i’ll finish Poul Anderson’s Fire Time before then (currently 130 pages to go!). Does anyone else have this quirk of having to finish books before leaving? 🙂
I like to have my next book ready to go. I like to read the last page of one and start the next. Even if it’s reading one page, I have started!
So you start before you read just to get a feel. Interesting!