Beach Books

We’re off to North Carolina to the beach next week so in preparation I went to the Allen County Public Library to stock up on books for the beach.

The list:

• In Fed We Trust by David Wessel.  Recommended by son Josh so I could “understand what he writes about all day.”
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.  Imagine the world without people.
• A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby.   Hornsby’s a good writer, always worth a read.
• The Great Gatsby.  You know who wrote it.  Son Josh is always quoting it at me, and it’s one of the many holes my reading of American Literature.
• The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland.  You can’t go wrong with Coupland.
• The Dead Hand by David Hoffman.  Pulitzer Prize winning story about the Cold War.  The success of this book is due in part to Josh Zumbrun, see page 486.
• A Stained White Radiance by James Lee Burke.  An early Robicheaux novel that I haven’t read.
• The Blue Horse by Rick Bass.  I have no idea what this is.  It was on the new fiction shelf and had a cool cover.  That’s much the same method I use to pick wine.

That’s it.  I know, I know.  No way that’s going to last me a week.  I’ll pull a few books off the shelves here at home that I’m perpetually trying to finish.  Most notably:

• Le Ton Beau de Marot and I am a Strange Loop both by Douglas Hofstadter.  I’ve been bogged down about halfway through both of these for years.  This is the year I’ll finish them!

I also picked up a few CD’s to supplement our collection for the drive.

• Les Miserables, the original Broadway cast.  If the soundtrack is as long as the play, that’ll be all we need.  It’s only a 14 hour drive.
• Mamma Mia! Original cast.    Need some cheery fluff after suffering through Les Miz.
• Best of Johnny Lee Hooker.    Debbie likes the blues.  I needed a sop to throw to her, because she’s really gonna hate:
• Walking Distance, Robert Earl Keen.  Real country music, like James Hiatt and Lyle Lovett.  Speaking of which…
• Pontiac, Lyle Lovett.

That’s a start.  I’m still concerned it’s not enough.  I may need a big fat brainless blockbuster novel to round it out.

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A later revision.

Debbie gave me two books for Father’s Day to round out my collection for the trip.  The consummate librarian, she picked better books for me than I did for myself:

• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson.  What’s not to like about the memoirs of a befuddled, beer-swilling, travel writer?  Seriously, Bryson is constantly amusing, almost as amusing as:
• I’ll Mature When I’m Dead by Dave Barry.  And there’s no one funnier than Dave Barry, so the list ends here.