CharlieDean

So, I’ve been on vacation.

The Friday before last we surprised the boys and picked them up early from school with the car packed for a spring break trip to Florida. That’s why I haven’t posted anything here. I really try to avoid technology as much as possible on vacation. So I watched very little television, only opened my computer to upload pictures off the camera, and replied to only about 3 emails all week on my phone.

What I do on vacation is hang out with my family, read and play an almost-nightly game of Cribbage with my grandparents – who generously host us. Here are the three books that I read on vacation:

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams. I don’t know why, but I think of this book as a “geek classic.” I think almost everyone that has ever told me “you should read that book,” is infected with some level of “nerd.” (If that’s you, I’m sorry.) It was okay. I laughed at a few things, but found it mostly strange. I should also mention that I listened to the audio book. It was my excuse while driving to put in an ear bud and ignore the chaos.
• The Confession – John Grisham. Sometimes I like Grisham, sometimes it’s just fluff; the perfect thing to read on the beach. But this book was different than most books by Grisham. In this one, Grisham has a point to make about the death penalty. I know it’s a novel, but it made me think about the ethics of the death penalty. I’m sure some people – who fall on the other side of the issue will find this book “preachy” – but I thought it was a creative way to think about the issue.
• The Stand (Unabridged) – Stephen King. I’m fascinated by the good vs. evil motif that runs through many of King’s novels. I do get tired of the gore, so I usually just skim those parts. I think just about every Stephen King fan says that The Stand is his best work. So, I borrowed my friend Jen’s 1200-page unabridged copy. It’s HUGE. I’m about 600 pages in. It’s good, I’m kinda wishing I was reading the original version though. Now that I’m not on vacation and feel like I should be reading real books and not just novels, it’s going to take forever to finish!

The two books that I packed on vacation and didn’t touch: Race Matters by Cornell West and Naked Spirituality by Brian McLaren. I had good intentions, but both are a little too heavy for vacation reading.

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