Quite frankly, I have too many of them. We are leaving for vacation on Friday, there is no reason for me to have 12 books from the library. This tally does not include the 3 magazines I have to read and the “fun” books I’d hoped to read on vacation.

Really, over half my luggage is books. The friends getting married this weekend are getting a fantastic cookbook in addition to the gift they registered for because, well, I got them the cheapest thing on their registry and I feel a little bit bad about that– the cake stand was so cool though!

Anyway, I’m only going to take a few books: Confederates in the Attic, The Art of Eating, and maybe The Economist. I can’t really decide.

See, I should probably be reading for my upcoming thesis– hence the inclusion of Confederates in the Attic. However, a big part of me is screaming, “but you’re on vacation! Take fun ‘beach reads’, your thesis will be fine.” And oh, I also need to read up on the history of the reproductive rights movement for my job in South Dakota this summer, and that has been kind of put on the back burner until I get my thesis plans nailed down.

It is unclear to me how this summer so quickly filled up with “serious” reading. I didn’t plan it this way at all.

We’ll see what makes it into the suitcase. I also tend to-overestimate how much down time I’ll have on vacation. No doubt the week will be full of visiting with friends, drinking delicious beer, walking on the beach, cooking, and not isolated alone-time reading.