Bookworming

Christopher Lee Donovan, NH

As a model I've experimented both with road trips and with flying to a city and relying on public transit while there.

For urban areas and shorter trips that are more than a day's drive away, public transit's generally the way to go. It tends to be cheaper [and in many cases, faster].

But my favorite part about it is that it gets me to read--I actually look forward to these trips for that very reason.
As a kid I was something of a bookworm, but in recent years I've had a rather sporadic and fast-paced lifestyle and usually can't convince myself to plop down and get lost with a book when there's so much LIFE to experience instead [or when I'm stuck behind a steering wheel or a set of handlebars--I'm somewhat finicky about audiobooks and don't often use them].

Last time I was in New York I spent my subway rides ploughing through Anna Karenina.

I just managed to finish Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston the other week. Beautiful.

When traveling light [i.e., out of a backpack instead of a car] my book selection tends to be based on compactness and density more than anything.

My reading list for this trip:

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives -- Leonard Mlodinow
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories -- Franz Kafka
One Two Three...Infinity -- George Gamow
The Stranger -- Albert Camus

...Oh, but I've just now found a copy of The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker on my host's bookshelf...may have to read that instead...