Up in Ontario

Books on Vacation

Over the 5 weeks we travelled through England, Greece and Turkey I managed to read the following books.

A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright - I know I keep going on about this book in blog posts (see Ephesus, Turkey and What We'll be Remembered For as examples) but it simply is one of the best books I've read in years. Reading it opened up a whole new perspective on the world for me. Just read it or listen to the lectures and you'll hopefully understand.

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown - In a touristy bookstore in Thira, the largest town on the island of Santorini, this book appeared to me as the best option from the few muddled shelves of English titles. Apart from a story that is insulting to read, with simplistic characters and a perfectly unbelieveable plot, DaVinci delivers some interesting glimpses into what could have been a great story. Many times I groaned out loud while reading, but I managed to finish and liked the historical story. Overall the book reminded me of a caramel apple for the brain - you think it might be good for you if it weren't for all the crap packaged along with it.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - Of all the books I read this one is the most difficult to judge, though the easiest to describe. Krakauer retells the story of Christopher McCandless, a well-off American college graduate who donates his trust fund to charity and drops out of society to seek something purer in the Alaska wilds. McCandless died in the wild, and this is the story's beginning. Krakauer spends the whole book trying to triangulate the real story of McCandless, but without getting any nearer to the subject. I finished the book with only a little more understanding of the story than when I started. I knew the details of McCandless' trip, what he'd left behind, who he'd talked to before he died, but no larger story opened up. The details refused a narrative, which I suppose alludes to the dissatisfaction of actual realism. Both McCandless and the story of his death elude Krakauer and me, his reader.

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen - I'd read a few Hiaasen books before and enjoyed their fast pace, sense of fun and sly, subversive wit. The rats get their comeuppance and the good people make out well in the end. Skinny Dip delivered more of the same, with a little more sex, though it dragged a little 2/3 of the way through where the energy of the story flagged and the characters became too cartoonish, even for Hiaasen's version of Florida.

I almost also picked up London Fields by Martin Amis to reread, but my travel buddy reminded me that I had to drop a book to pick one up, and at that time I didn't have a book with me that was ready to seek its place out in the world alone. So I relented. I also read a novelized adaptation of a play called The Ringer, set in London during the end of the 19th century. It read as if Dickens had written a potboiler play - pure fun!