In about four weeks, I will be spending 28 of the next 34 days traveling. What?!?!? I know. And if I had accepted the invitation to go to the Immunology department retreat, it would have been 30 of the next 34 so it's a good thing I said no to that. Anyway, with all this traveling, I'm going to need a good book. And that means I am going to need suggestions. Here's generally what I like to read with examples in parentheses: classic English literature involving smart men and smart women meeting each other at parties and on walks in the countryside (North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell), men wearing parkas and climbing something really high and having a bad time of it (The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard), senior citizens solving crimes that the best and brightest of the police force can't handle (Miss Marple by Agatha Christie . . . my love of Perry Mason, Matlock, and Diagnosis Murder also come into this category), men escaping the Nazi's through the bitter Norwegian countryside (We Die Alone, by David Howarth), men fighting jib sails, foresails, mainsails, mizzenmasts, and more while tacking west past Tierra Del Fuego (Two Years Before the Mast, by Henry Dana Jr.). I don't like books that deal with boys coming of age and sports. That goes for movies too, so The Sandlot is an F- in my book. Rudy too. Gag! Also, if it involves people talking about their feelings over the course of 36 chapters or worse "self-discovery", I'll probably not get past page three. So basically, if you think either "didn't Jane Austen already write this exact plot?" or "wow, did it not occur to them to pack an extra pair of wool socks?" I'm game.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Now accepting suggestions.
In about four weeks, I will be spending 28 of the next 34 days traveling. What?!?!? I know. And if I had accepted the invitation to go to the Immunology department retreat, it would have been 30 of the next 34 so it's a good thing I said no to that. Anyway, with all this traveling, I'm going to need a good book. And that means I am going to need suggestions. Here's generally what I like to read with examples in parentheses: classic English literature involving smart men and smart women meeting each other at parties and on walks in the countryside (North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell), men wearing parkas and climbing something really high and having a bad time of it (The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard), senior citizens solving crimes that the best and brightest of the police force can't handle (Miss Marple by Agatha Christie . . . my love of Perry Mason, Matlock, and Diagnosis Murder also come into this category), men escaping the Nazi's through the bitter Norwegian countryside (We Die Alone, by David Howarth), men fighting jib sails, foresails, mainsails, mizzenmasts, and more while tacking west past Tierra Del Fuego (Two Years Before the Mast, by Henry Dana Jr.). I don't like books that deal with boys coming of age and sports. That goes for movies too, so The Sandlot is an F- in my book. Rudy too. Gag! Also, if it involves people talking about their feelings over the course of 36 chapters or worse "self-discovery", I'll probably not get past page three. So basically, if you think either "didn't Jane Austen already write this exact plot?" or "wow, did it not occur to them to pack an extra pair of wool socks?" I'm game.
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3 comments:
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis is about a smart man and woman meeting and taking walks in the country side and solving a mystery while they are at it. Close enough?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel by Susanna Clarke is a plot that Austen would have written if she wrote wizard books.
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat is a book about men wearing parkas and gloves trying to not die as submarines attack them.
If I have more time (and my head clears), I'll come up with some more for you.
Wait I thought you were just lent a whole series of books about a victorian era theif/pirate, who has romantic sci fi adventures as he circumnavigates the globe which may or may not include magic if I remember correctly. I think he also makes a point of taunting talentless men who aspire to becoming something on the playing field. Thats like everything you described wrapped up into one. I would listen in on that the whole way to Peru. Or you could just read something by Austen again and I would leave you alone.
The Josephine B. trilogy by Sandra Gulland
O, Pioneers! by Willa Cather
These is My Words by Nancy Turner
Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
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