The great decisions we must make

Among the great challenges of vacation travel is the book selection. You must balance space and carrying capacity with insurance for poor choice. I like to bring more books than I can read, but not so many that I don't enough clothing for the trip. Yes, you can always buy more when you get there, but this is really a mark of failure and shame. After all, the vacation is one of the best opportunities to make a dent in your reading pile. Not that I can ever actually finish reading all the books in my pile. Anyway, here are some categories and the books for which I am bringing.

Classics: As a rule, classics are long and I am impatient, which means I don't read them very much. So much of my reading is done with stacks of other tempting books in plain sight, which means the poor lengthy novel often goes aside. So what better time to start the epic Palliser cycle with Can You Forgive Her?

The Genres: I suppose this is a fancy way of saying beach read. Really these are good everywhere so why not consume many of them at once? Spin is supposed to be top notch, so that's going. Bone Doll's Twin looks tasty, and why finish a fantasy novel series when I can start another? And now I am cheating, my Mom is bringing A Good and Happy Child, so I have a shot at that as well. Tears of Autumn may make the grade, maybe not.

Presents: I'm really bad about reading books I have received as gifts. Something from the Amazon wish list doesn't count so much as the carefully chosen volume, but still it is a gift. Luckily Bone Doll's Twin gets double counted in categories.

Big fat histories: I love these but I can't read them when commuting or sneak away on a lunch break for a 20 minute read. So I normally take one. Not this time. I am nearly finished with the excellent Fire in the Sky and I don't feel like bringing along that much book for only 100 or pages of actual reading.

Exciting nonfiction: This is essentially non-fiction beach reading. Next week's winner is Curse of the Narrows. Man, people who like disaster books should do read a lot of them. In addition to fires and shipwrecks, the Amazon "also purchased" links include a book about the great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.

Obligation books: These are the books you barely want to read, but like having on your bookshelf. I'm not bringing any as I won't actually read them. The Shield of Achilles keeps coming on trips and keeps not getting read. It stays at home this time.