Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Books-Vacation Connection

Today is the last day of our family vacation. Within an hour or two, we will be back on the road, and I'll be sleeping in my own bed tonight. (I've been blogging about our road trip over at my "regular" blog, if you're interested in the details.)

Although I was hoping that vacation-time would equal reading-time, I've not made huge strides in my reading goals, partly because of the large amounts of time we've spent driving (and I can't read in a car without getting sick) and also because of the many activities we've been packing into our days. (In a couple of weeks, I'll be vacationing again - at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, where the pace will be much slower and I expect I'll have more time to read.)

I have had a few moments of books-vacation connection, though, and here is a summary:

  • Finishing The Host the night we slept in Portland, Oregon.

  • Reading - and loving - Just Listen, which I carried around in my bag to Bainbridge Island and all through the museums at Seattle Center.

  • Visiting the Eagle Harbor Book Co. on Bainbridge Island, and supporting the local economy and independent booksellers by leaving with a bagful of books. I had everyone in the family pick something - and I intend to read nearly all of them myself! The titles we purchased are The Broken Window, Just Grace, The Children's Quick and Easy Cookbook, Tomorrow's Magic, Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little, and When It Happens.

  • Visiting the Science Fiction Museum, which has the goal of "promot[ing] awareness and appreciation of science fiction literature and media while encouraging visitors to envision new futures for humanity."

  • Starting a re-read of Doomsday Book, which is my IRL book club pick for July. (Do you think I can finish it before Tuesday?)

  • Visiting a few sights related to a certain popular book series, since we were in the area anyway. (I'll be posting more about this later, and my daughter Jelly Bean will be too.)

  • Listening to part of Hoot on CD in the car.
I will continue to wish that I could read faster, since July is nearly over and I am nowhere near the eight-book goal I'd set. But I guess any good read is better than none!

7 comments:

  1. I just loved The Host! According to Stephenie Meyer's website, she is working on a sequel!

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  2. Have fun at the Shakespearean Festival! I have great memories of going there when I was a teenager, and a couple of years ago I took my kids there when we were driving through to see the Green Show. I love the lemon tarts!

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  3. I hope the rest of your trip is great. You have been right up here in my neighborhood!
    When you get a chance, stop by my spot and pick up the awards I am passing on to you!
    *smiles*
    Kim
    http://pageafterpage-kim.blogspot.com/2008/07/feeling-love.html

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  4. Sounds fun, looking forward to hearing about the "sights"!

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  5. you visited my home! well, kind of. after you take the ferry to bainbridge island and drive just a little bit more you'll get to my home (poulsbo). i just love that area. i hope you all had a great time!!

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  6. An SF museum? That sounds like fun to visit!

    When I was at MIT I was a keyholder at their science fiction library, which was then (and probably still is) the largest publicly-accessible science fiction library in the world. Now that was fun!

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  7. I started reading about your trip the other day and then got pulled away. It looks like you had a good trip. I used to live in Seattle.

    I left a little something for you on my blog today. Check it out when you get a chance. :-)

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