Beach Bag

I've just landed at the beach for a few days with my friend Sandy while our husbands are off in Scotland facing the daunting task of golfing every day for a week. We opted for a little peace and quiet and--of course--uninterrupted reading time. This morning as I completed my manic packing, I had to decide what books to bring along. Aware that in three or four days, I wouldn't get to them all, I decided nonetheless to overpack. (Now that the airlines are so restrictive about baggage weight, I love to go somewhere by car where I am only limited by space of the backseat and trunk.

This trip, I'm still working away on my Pride and Prejudice study guide. I am tempted, by the way, by the new Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It has to be tongue in cheek, right? I notice too that Colleen McCullough has complete something of a sequel with Mary Bennet as protagonist.

In the meantime, I have The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music by Victor L. Wooten, passed on to me by a former student whom I respect. I also have My Old True Love by Sheila Kay Adams (a North Carolina writer-singer-storyteller), Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson and (a book I've had on my list for months now).

On the eBook, I've loaded Denis Johnson's Vietnam novel Tree of Smoke, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, and The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruis Zafon, author of The Shadow of the Wind.

For my shorter bursts of reading, I have Billy Collins' latest collection of poems Ballistics and Don't Leave Hungry: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review edited by James Smith. Of course I have the latest issues of Oxford American (Best of the South Issue), Southern Living (since we'll probably be inspired to cook while we're down here) and Garden and Gun.

Looking at my treasure trove of reading material, I should probably plan to stay a little longer.

Beach Bag