Packing books

[mrissa]

It's snowing steadily but not particularly nastily here. We'll probably want to shovel the bottom of the driveway before leaving -- and by "we" I mean "I," because markgritter has to work a half-day -- but if it's this weather all the way, it won't be too horrible. We have freeways the whole way. I hear there's thundersnow to the south, though. I love thundersnow, but mostly I love it from inside a house. I remember calling scottjames from my aunt's during our senior year of high school: "Can you get my assignments tomorrow? We're not going to make it back in time. It's thundersnowing." "Sure, I'll...it's what?"

I've packed my books (though not anything else, as M. is still sleeping in the bedroom and doesn't have to wake up and work for another few minutes, and I don't want to slam drawers and rattle closet drawers to wake him; I prefer to do that by poking him repeatedly). It's not many -- short trip -- but it's clearly the relaxing trip mode of book packing, that is, books I would like to read but just haven't been reaching for when I have other options. When it's going to be a moderately stressful trip, I pack things I've been saving for special; when it's going to be a really stressful trip, I pack things I already know I love, so I don't have to deal with bad books on top of everything else. But for a routine, no-problems-expected trip, I pack things that get shuffled to the bottom of the pile for no good reason.

I'm also funny about packing other people's books. I don't really intend to be going much of anywhere but my own car, my parents' house, and my own car again, but for some reason I still don't want to pack bunches of porphyrin's and dd_b's books. The "it's not mine" urge doesn't kick in when I have a book in my purse to read in line at the grocery store, but somehow going to a different state changes things in my head.

How do you pick which books to pack?

(Special to Aet: thank you for the postcard and leaflet! I enjoyed the mammoth under the mushroom, but when I tried to e-mail you, the message bounced.)

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I pack one that's big and new, and one that's a well-loved old favorite. Two of each for longer trips. Paperbacks, usually.

K.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

I own a lot of duplicate books, so for 10-day overseas trips when I know I'll want more suitcase room coming back, I pack duplicates of books I've already read and enjoyed, and leave them in the hostels after I've read them.

For short business trips I usually pack three -- whatever is next in my reading queue. Unless I'm going to St. Louis, which has the world's best airport bookstores, in which case I just take one and count on being able to pack my bag with books for the trip back home.

[ckd]

My rule used to be to prepare for a worst-case need and bring "a book a flight and a book a night", with a mix of books I'd been meaning to get to and old favorites. With ebooks on my Palm, the inventory needs for longer trips go down significantly; something to read during takeoff and landing, and a book for every two or three nights (since I tend to drop books when I fall asleep, reading from the PDA at night is not a good plan).

For Minicon I'll probably pack the Khaavren Romances, now that they're all out in mmpb. That's more than the old rule's worth of books (five books for four flights and two nights, but they're not short books) but, hey, it's time for a full read-through of the series.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I definitely see the appeal to a travel reread like that, but I try not to do it much myself, because what if I get through Five Hundred Years After and discover that I'm Khaavrened out for the moment? This happens to me even with the best of series; I'll set down one of them and think, "And now for some nonfiction!" or something like that.

[ckd]

I'll usually pack at least one "something else" book. In this case, I won't; if I need one and don't have something I want on the Palm, I'll buy something in the huckster's room.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That makes particular sense for con travel, yep. And when I'm visiting friends and relations, there are almost always books on their shelves, or else they'll know of a decent bookstore nearby.

I've heard horror stories of someone trying to shop for books while traveling and not knowing where to find anything better than the airport bookstore in the locations they were spending time. Meep.

[ckd]

I've heard horror stories of someone trying to shop for books while traveling and not knowing where to find anything better than the airport bookstore in the locations they were spending time. Meep.

*shudder*

Airport bookstores are better than they used to be, at least. Notable ones include the used bookstore at RDU and the Powell's branch at PDX, but the WaldenBorders at BOS (terminal C) and the Simply Books at CLE are typical of today's "usual" and are usually good enough to get you out of a crisis.

[ellarien]

I usually take two for a weekend run to Phoenix, three for a business trip of a week or less. They have to be paperbacks, preferably mass-market, for weight and space reasons. For the last few years, they've been chosen from the backlog, with an eye to things that will hold my interest in noisy, distracting environments like airports and planes. I try to pick a variety of genres or at least flavours. For plane trips these days, I also find myself looking at titles and cover art with a view to what paranoid security personnel might think. For trips home to England -- twenty-four hours door-to-door, for most of which I'll be awake -- I try to take books for the outbound trip that I don't mind leaving at my mother's house, and buy new ones there for the trip back.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

For short trips, like a Con, I just take one novel, or maybe two short story collections. For a longer trip I try to take a novel and a short story collections. The short stories work because usually I'll read for a few minutes, then something happens that needs my attention, so it is easier for me to pick up and put down short story collections. Most of my trip reading happens in airplanes and airports.

[karenmkk-610.livejournal.com]

I m too much of a packrat to take books I don't mind leaving anywhere, I have few books I have duplicates of. I usually get paperbacks from the library starting a few weeks before so I have a backlog and I will usually buy one new paperback per trip. I usually take a book a plane with 1 or 2 extras and at least 1 per day also with 1 or 2 extras. I leave for Hawaii in a week and even though I m sure I will come home with a lot unread (especially with the new laptop for games), I am taking 6 books in my carryon and I think 10 in my suitcase. I try to pick paperbacks because they are light, and I pick books I haven't read (for the most part cause they go slower), and books by authors I enjoyed, I try to find a good mix of different authors also though.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"How do you pick which books to pack?"

If I'm reading a book -- or have a book I want to start reading -- and I don't think the weight would be too annoying, I pack it. If it's a longer trip, I might pack two.

But ususally not.

(For example, I am currently in the middle of Collapse. I decided it was too big and heavy to bring with me to San Jose on Wednesday.)

B

[sraun]

That reminds me - I finished The Family Trade. Still wanna borrow it? If so, when and where do you want to get together?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ummm. I do, but after Minicon, maybe? Because things are kind of packed before then.

[sraun]

Sounds good. You going to be at Minicon? I could bring it along and transfer then.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am indeed going to be at Minicon. If you don't want to try to deal with remembering it in the middle of everything else, we'll figure out something else; otherwise Minicon would be good.

[sraun]

I'll toss it in the bag - if we remember when we see each other, wonderful, otherwise, we'll make arrangements later.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This sounds suspiciously like a plan.

However, I have no reason to think that the "if Scott makes a plan, it snows" rule applies to any Scotts but scottjames, so I think we're good.

[sraun]

Well, somewhere between a theory and a plan...

[carbonel]

How do you pick which books to pack?

For a trip where I know I'll have a lot of reading time, such as a resort-based trip, I'll usually go to DreamHaven and buy a bunch of new books, preferably by authors I haven't read before. Back when Scott Imes was alive, I would go to Uncle Hugo's and solicit recommendations from him, but now I have to wing it.

That's how I discovered Tanya Huff and Fiona Patton and Elizabeth Willey -- to name a few of the successes.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I keep a list of books people have recommended. I also keep notes on who recommended them so that if it turns out I have quite different taste, I don't keep prioritizing the recommendations the same way.

I haven't found the first Willey book. bradipo recommended them, but I didn't want to read them out of order. Haven't read Fiona Patton, either; should I?

[carbonel]

I haven't found the first Willey book. bradipo recommended them, but I didn't want to read them out of order.

"Order" is an odd concept with the Willey books, because the first book written takes place considerably later (chronologically) than the other two books. And I think the third book may have been a prequel to the second book, though I can't recall for sure. It's probably time for a reread on those.

Haven't read Fiona Patton, either; should I?

I don't know enough about your tastes to know if you'd like them. They're a series of thick books that all take place in the same world, but have no overlapping characters, since they bob around in a 2000-year history. I particularly liked The Painter Knight, but I enjoyed all of them. They're somewhere on the line between High Fantasy and EFP.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

So could I read the Willeys in any order I choose, is that accurate?

I like some high fantasy. Others not. Do things change significantly over the 2000 years?

[carbonel]

So could I read the Willeys in any order I choose, is that accurate?

Apparently the 2nd and 3rd books were originally written as one long book, and were split because of the exigencies of the printing industry. So those should probably be read in order. As for the others, well, the 2nd and 3rd have spoilers for the first book that you'll miss if you read them out of order, but I don't know how much you care about that sort of thing.

I do have all of them if you'd like to borrow whatever you're missing.

I like some high fantasy. Others not. Do things change significantly over the 2000 years?

Oh, yes. Considerably.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't have any of them, so I'd like to borrow at least one and see how it goes.