reading list

I think pretty much everyone out there has a weakness for a particular kind of store. it’s the kind of thing that whenever you go into one, you cant help but spend ages there perusing everything you see and wont leave until you have bought a ton of stuff. for some people it’s clothing or shoes… they just cant get enough. for others it’s collectibles, or tools, or gadgets, or whatever. for me, the addiction has always been for music. every time I would go into a record store or CD shop, I just couldn’t be trusted to not buy anything. luckily, with the internet these days and mp3s, I haven’t really had the need to go to music stores in years.

unfortunately though, music stores aren’t the only ones that I have been obsessed with. I also love bookstores. I’m pretty big on reading, and each time I get to go to a bookstore, I end up with a huge stack of books and agonize for ages as to which ones I wont buy. in particular, I love Green Apple books in SF, but really almost any bookstore will do, ranging from huge chains like Barnes and Nobles to small tiny mom & pop shops. back home, I would all too often buy way too many books, and then end up with an ever growing stack by my bed. frequently, some books in the stack wouldn’t get read since I would end up in a bookstore again, and just bring home yet another stack to replace the old one.

on this trip, it has sometimes been hard finding books. most of the bookstores are small or only have a very small English section. plus, often enough the books they sell are only the super popular thrillers that I am not too huge a fan of. but, when I have been able to find a decent bookstore, I’ve, as usual, ended up buying too many books. my backpack is fairly small, and already hella full, so adding like 4 books to it is not a good idea. sometimes I’ve had to have a separate plastic bag that I carry around just for books. yeah, I know it’s a bit nerdy carrying around plastic bags full of books when you’re traveling around the world, but what can I say?

the amount of reading that I can do really depends on where I am. there are times when I spend a lot of time on buses or in towns where everything shuts down by 8pm… during those times I´ll read a crapload, sometimes a book every two days. other times, I’m hella busy doing all sorts of stuff, and I´ll read like one book per month. it really varies. anyways, a few months back, I thought it would be a cool idea to actually keep track of all the books I’ve read on this trip… and maybe even keep track of all the books I read from now on. some of the books I’ve read on this trip have been really really damn good! so I started writing them down.

I’m sure many of you probably wont really care, but if you are interested, here’s the list of the books I’ve gone through since I started this trip (guidebooks not included):

1. Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett
2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
4. The Middle East by Bernard Lewis
5. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman
6. The alchemist by Paulo Coelho
7. The Stranger by Albert Camus
8. Hold the Enlightenment by Tim Cahill
9. The Liar by Stephen Fry
10. Paint Your Dragon by Tom Holt
11. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
12. The JOKE by Milan Kundera
13. Notes on a scandal by Zoe Heller
14. Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by Dalai Lama
15. The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by Dalai Lama
16. Emails from (Over?) the Edge by Nick Woolsey
17. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
18. Don’t Read This Book If You’re Stupid by Tibor Fischer
19. The Scheme for Full Employment by Magnus Mills
20. Lonely Planet Unpacked Again: Travel Disaster Stories by Don George
21. Inscrutable Americans by Mathur Anurag
22. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
23. How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers
24. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization by Thomas L. Friedman
25. Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho
26. Past Mortem by Ben Elton
27. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
28. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
29. Strong Motion by Jonathan Franzen
30. Natasha : And Other Stories by David Bezmozgis
31. The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
32. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
33. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
34. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
35. Nonfiction by Chuck Palahniuk
36. Dark Star Safari : Overland from Cairo to Capetown by Paul Theroux
37. Voyage to the End of the Room by Tibor Fischer
38. The Society of Others by William Nicholson

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