Books. Books! Books?

I’m planning on travelling light on the Camino.

This, obviously, means that instead of taking a giant stack of books that weigh a ton and take up space that could be used for silly things like ‘water’ and ‘clothes’, I’ll be taking my beloved ereader. A delightful side-benefit of this is that it fits way more books in it than my backpack*. Yay!

So one of the things that I’m planning on doing over the next few days is filling up my ereader with piles and piles of delicious literature**. Now, we live in a world which is (fabulously) full of far more delightful reading than any one person could ever hear of. So I have a question for you, my most ravishing readers:

If you were a book that a person should take with them for a 5-week long walk, what would you be? I’m looking for recommendations of anything you think fitting. Travel writing is, of course, always a good thing when travelling, and any of that you’ve read would be very welcome indeed. However, if you’ve read anything else that might fit, feel free to mention it. Quirky sci-fi is also always welcome 🙂

Thanks bunches in advance!

 

*or my bookshelves. We’re living in the future, people.

**nom nom nom.

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Books. Books! Books?
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15 thoughts on “Books. Books! Books?

  1. 1

    Favourites:

    “In Search of Klingsor” by Jorge Volpi

    “The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver

    “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruis Zafon

    And the Steig Larsson millenium series

    1. 1.1

      You know, I’ve been meaning to read some Kingsolver for ages- I once borrowed a book of essays she wrote, and loved her writing style. Will pop ‘er on the download list. I’ve already got Larsson on the reader. And since you’ve already demonstrated such delightful taste, I’ll have to check out the other two as well 😉
      Thanks for the recs!

  2. 2

    Have you read any Jasper Fforde yet? His work fits “quirky” quite well and it’s rather clever speculative fiction (not hard sci-fi at all, but weird alternate histories/’verses), and there’s enough of it to fill a good portion of vacation.

    1. 2.1

      Hehe, the Statistician (one of my housemates, by the way) just lent me a copy of The Eyre Affair. I’m halfway through it as we speak! I’m liking it- I found it a little awkward and contrived to start off, but he seems to have gotten into his groove as the book goes on. Also, it’s adorkable. And I like adorkable 🙂

  3. 3

    Here are some favorites of mine:

    “Mailman” by J. Robert Lennon
    “The Book of Right and Wrong” by Matt Debenham
    “Everything Matters!” by Ron Currie Jr.
    Anything by Amiee Bender

    Happy travels!

  4. 5

    Hi, I’m a friend of Ariel’s. Since we’re talking about J Robert Lennon, I liked his book The Funnies.

    As for travel writing … Atlas Of The Human Heart by Ariel Gore is my ultimate travel writing pick. It kills me. KILLS ME. And I am currently in the middle of You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers, which I am finding very epic and loving a lot.

  5. 6

    The Beauty of Humanity Movement – Camilla Gibb

    The Mistress of the Art of Death – Ariana Franklin (utterly page-turningly addictive)

    The Help – Kathryn Stockett

    The Island – Victoria Hislop

    Lyrics Alley – Leila Aboulelah

    The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna

    The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

    Secret Daughter – Shilpi Somaya Gowda

    Rush Home Road – Lori Lansens

  6. el
    7

    I am from Feministe. Don’t know whether they’re on ebook, but among my favorites are:

    Katherine Mansfield’s short stories
    All Our Worldly Goods by Irène Némirovsky
    “The House of Bilqis” by Azhar Abidi

  7. 8

    Hey, I’m a new reader (via Nahida /the fatal feminist), so this is my first comment and you might very well have read it. However, if you haven’t, I think Paulo Coelho’s The Pilgrimage (which is written about the authors Camino) is very appropriate (and an incredible book, made me want to do the Camino one day). Or anything else by Coelho actually, I especially recommend Veronika Decides to Die, The Zahir, The Devil and Miss Prym and Brida.

    When are you going?

  8. 9

    Ooh, thanks for asking the question, because now I’m reading through your comments and picking out my next books. 🙂

    If you’re reading Kingsolver, I’d look at Animal Dreams too– one of my favorites that I’ve reread several times over many years.

    Recently I devoured the Hunger Games trilogy– YA Sci-Fi, yes, but awesome vacation reading.

    I also really liked The Lover’s DIctionary by David Levithan.

    Happy reading!

  9. 10

    If you have any stomach for fantasy at all, try “Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss. I’d also second the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. For fun and intrigue, you could try some of the original Bond novels by Ian Fleming. (I suppose those last two might be on opposite sides of the misogyny scale…)

  10. JHS
    11

    I would recommend anything by Ursual Le Guin, especially “The Dispossessed”, “The Left Hand of Darkness” or the story collection “The Compass Rose”. Oh, and Joanna Russ, specially “The Female Man” and “How To Suppress Women’s Writing”. And anything by Octavia Butler. I love those feminist SF writers!

    Oh, and if you can get a copy of the “Dangerous Visions” anthologies on ereader, I’d recommend those as well.

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