Road Trip Books

[osprey_archer]

The most important part of packing for a road trip, of course, is deciding which books you’re going to take along. As my road trip is too long to allow for taking books out of the library, I shall have to take a selection from the Unread Book Club already lined up on my shelves, which as you can imagine makes me feel most productive & efficient.

I’ve already made a few definite choices. Dorothy Sayers’ Harriet Vane/Peter Whimsy quartet is coming: it will fulfill (indeed overfulfill) my next reading challenge, “three books by the same author,” and also I have meant to read these books for forever and expect them to be a treat which all in all makes them perfect for a vacation.

I’m also taking Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, because, aptly, I kidnapped it from the shelf of a friend and ought to get it back in a reasonably timely manner.

But I’m still happily contemplating my other choices. Should I, for instance, take along Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers? I feel like The Three Musketeers AND all those Sayers books might be a little too much.

On the other hand, one should never underestimate how much reading time one will have on holiday! And The Three Musketeers is just one big book to haul around, rather than a lot of little books, which is a point in its favor.

Other contenders:

Jane Langton’s The Astonishing Stereoscope. I hesitate because perhaps I ought to let more time elapse after reading The Fragile Flag before reading another Langton book? Otherwise it might lead to unfair comparison.

Sheila O’Connor’s Sparrow Road. I found this in a Little Free Library and took it because I was enchanted at having a book from a Little Free Library. No idea if it’s any good. Has anyone read it?

Nancy Bond’s A String in the Harp. Children’s magical time travel fantasy! A genre that has fallen sadly out of fashion in late years, as has portal fantasy. Yes, I probably ought to give this one a go.

Theresa Tomlinson’s The Forestwife. A Robin Hood retelling. Possibly a nitty-gritty retelling with plague and starving to death? Hmm.

Patricia Clapp’s Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth. Massachusetts is on my itinerary. Of course I ought to take this book along.

Comments

[asakiyume]

:D :D :D

~ ~ We are going to have a great tiiiiiiimmmmmme~ ~

I keep seeing things around town and thinking, "Ooh, I'll have to show Osprey Archer that."

[osprey_archer]

YESSSSSSSS. It is going to be epic!

[landofnowhere]

I liked the /The Forestwife/ as a kid, and reread it four or so years ago. I found it to be okay, fairly generic feminist retelling, and otherwise not that memorable. (/The Outlaws of Sherwood/ is my Robin Hood of choice.)

[osprey_archer]

I read The Outlaws of Sherwood as a kid! You can never go wrong with Monica Furlong. My favorite book of hers is definitely Juniper, though.

[landofnowhere]

The /The Outlaws of Sherwood/ I was thinking of is by Robin McKinley -- did Monica Furlong do a version too? I did really like /Wise Child/ and /Juniper/ when I was a kid and should reread them.

[osprey_archer]

Well honestly, the answer is probably that I read it so long ago that I wasn't paying sufficient attention to the authors and they both got filed in my brain under Furlong, Monica by mistake. They're both kinda old-timey! If Monica Furlong wrote a Robin Hood retelling, that's probably what it would be like.

I actually don't know what Furlong wrote aside from the Wise Child/Juniper/Colman trilogy. I ought to see if there's anything else.

ETA: Oh hey! Monica Furlong did write her own Robin Hood retelling, Robin's Country!

I have no recollection if I ever read it. This might just be a weird coincidence.

[rachelmanija]

I read A String in the Harp a while back, and have no recollection whatsoever of it. This suggests that it wasn't memorable.

[osprey_archer]

Hmmm. Perhaps I'll leave that here and choose a different book to take its place.

[silverusagi]

Did I miss a post? (I'm sure I did.) Is the road trip a definite go now?

[osprey_archer]

I think actually I failed to post about the road trip's transition from Beautiful Unlikely Dream to This is Actually Happening. Getting all my ducks in a row has clearly distracted me!

[littlerhymes]

This is def the most important part of travelling. I'm pro Dumas, but gosh, I haven't read any of those other contenders. So maybe don't listen to me LOL.

[osprey_archer]

The other contenders are mostly semi-obscure American children's historical fiction from the 1980s (I think my mom bought most of it; it was sitting on the shelves at home waiting to be discovered and instead I reread All of a Kind Family five hundred times), so it's no surprise you've never heard of it.

My main hesitation about the Dumas book is that I read The Count of Monte Cristo in tandem with an LJ friend, which would be difficult to do if I read it on a road trip, and maybe I want to save The Three Musketeers to do the same thing with.

But on the other hand it's not like there aren't five million other works of French literature that we could read instead, so maybe I should just throw caution to the winds and take the book along.

[evelyn_b]

I'm so glad the road trip is going to be a glorious reality! I hope you have lots of fun and make zero lattes (unless you really want one, I guess). How long will you be on the road?

I am very curious to read your thoughts on Sayers, but you already knew that. You might find it helpful to create a keyboard shortcut for the phrase "Shut up, Peter."

The Three Musketeers is a lot of book! I have to read it someday, maybe soon, but honestly the Monte Cristo Experience was such a near-perfect thrill ride I'm a little worried that no other book can possibly live up to it. Which is very unfair of me. Why should it have to live up to anything?

[osprey_archer]

Someone else will make me ALL MY LATTES. Well, I actually don't drink lattes, but they will make me ALL MY HOT CHOCOLATES if it is actually cool enough for hot chocolates in July, which I guess it might be when I'm in Canada.

Maybe I should let more time pass before I read The Three Musketeers. It's not going to be fair to it if I'm comparing it to The Count of Monte Cristo all the time, which I inevitably will if I read them so close together. And by close together, I mean six months apart at this point. The Count of Monte Cristo just has a lot of staying power!

[evelyn_b]

Canada! So exciting!

I gave a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo to my family at Christmas to pass around among themselves. So every couple of months I get to vicariously re-experience the magic, as they call me up to yell about Danglars et al.. It's a book about treasure, but it's also a treasure! But even after they've all had a turn, I think we'll be talking about CMC for many years to come.

[osprey_archer]

YESSSSS, best Christmas present ever, both for your family and yourself. Everyone needs a chance to yell about Danglars et al! Although for my money the Villefort family is the one that requires the most yelling. All that poison! Poor Valentine! Villefort digging madly in his garden!