You guys, I read 37 books on this trip

(Chris)

Hey everyone,

We've been back in the US now for about a week, and I (for one) am veeeery slowly recovering from the terrible Australia-to-US jet lag. We'll be finishing out our blog posts over the coming weeks, but I'm breaking in here to talk about reading.

All three of us had Amazon Paperwhite Kindles to read from on our trip, and I have to say that was one (three) of our best purchases. They're small and light, and they have a built in backlight so you can read in bed without waking up the neighborhood with a lamp or book light. If you keep the light set low, the battery will last you a week between charges and it won't strain your eyes any more than reading on paper. Remembering how on pre-digital travel I'd go with pound upon pound of bound books, having the kindle was was terrific space and weight savings.

Better still, through our library, you can check out ebooks from their electronic collection even if you happen to be in Montenegro rather than Montclair. Consequently, not only did we not have to carry our books, the books we read were largely free. I chalk this up as a huge success for Jen, who figured out how to use eBCCLS to check out kindle library books remotely.

I also used, though less often as news became more depressing, Zinio to access library magazines on my iPhone, but I'm really here to talk about books. Did I say I read 37 of them? Here they are, ordered by my estimation and with my very concise plot summary:

Novel	Author	Plot Summary
Rabbit, Run	John Updike	Rabbit runs from everything, but has no ability to exert his agency except when playing games
Moby Dick	Herman Melville	A novel about whales and whalers and being crazy
The Crossing	Cormac McCarthy	Billy Parham crosses into Mexico several times: to free a wolf, to avenge his parents, and to recover a body
Libra	Don DeLillo	Lee Harvey Oswald, patsy, kills JFK (or not)
Cities of the Plain	Cormac McCarthy	John Grady Cole falls in love in Mexico again, finds tragedy again; Billy Parham tries to help
The Name of the Wind	Patrick Rothfuss	A story about a man telling stories about telling stories (with dragons)
The Wise Man’s Fear	Patrick Rothfuss	More of the same, but with fairies, brigands and samurai
The Underground Railroad	Colson Whitehead	A woman strives to escape bondage, but is doggedly pursued by a slave hunter through many miseries
The Sellout: A Novel	Paul Beatty	A black man in L.A. acquires a slave, segregates a school
Of Human Bondage	W. Somerset Maughm	Phillip has tremendous self regard, is callow, grows up
A Perfect Spy	John Le Carré	A british spy disappears after his father’s death to write his life story
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk	Ben Fountain	A heroic squad of soldiers attend a Cowboys game before returning to Iraq
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?	Philip K. Dick	Cop seeks rogue androids in order to collect bounties, buy a pet
The Plot Against America: A Novel	Philip Roth	Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR, is a nazi puppet; a Jewish community in Newark lives in fear
The North Water	Ian McGuire	Like Moby Dick, but the monster is on the boat
Amsterdam: A Novel	Ian McEwan	A composer and a publisher enter a pact to euthanize each other if they ever lose their mental faculties
Lord of the Flies	William Golding	Boys on an island go savage
The Nix	Nathan Hill	A man seeks to understand the others in his life, himself, and his mother
Lilith’s Brood	Octavia Butler	After nuclear war, aliens arrive to breed with survivors, remake the world
Call for the Dead	John Le Carré	George Smiley solves a murder, uncovers East German spy ring
Norse Mythology	Neil Gaiman	Thor and the boys fight giants
The Outsiders	SE Hinton	Greasers and Socs have fist fights
Players	Don DeLillo	A married couple have adventures apart from one another: one goes to Maine, one becomes a terrorist and/or spy
MaddAddam	Margaret Atwood	After the world ends, earth mother discovers secrets, finds love
Half a King	Joe Abercrombie	A weak prince becomes a slave; grows up
Half a War	Joe Abercrombie	Two young people go on a boat trip, much violence ensues
Half the World	Joe Abercrombie	Three young people take part in a revolution, bring guns to sword fight
Hear the Wind Sing	Haruki Murakami	The narrator tells of a summer drinking with his friend, The Rat
Pinball	Haruki Murakami	The narrator tries to find his way out of a first third of life crisis, using pinball as a metaphor for wasting time
The Dinner	Herman Koch	Extremely unpleasant people have a dinner date
The Doomsday Book	Connie Willis	British scientists can send you back in time, are often extremely petty, lack cellphones
Dance Dance Dance	Haruki Murakami	The narrator investigates a mysterious hotel, a man dressed as a sheep, and several deaths while building a relationship with two young women
Mistborn: Secret History	Brandon Sanderson	A dead guy witnesses the events surrounding the end and beginning of the world
Alloy of Law	Brandon Sanderson	Cowboys use magic to solve crime
Bands of Mourning	Brandon Sanderson	Cowboys use magic to solve crime
Shadows of Self	Brandon Sanderson	Cowboys use magic to solve crime
The Terranauts: A Novel	T.C.Boyle	Vapid people complain, less interesting than Biodome

I also began, but decided I wasn't interest in, Colson Whitehead's Zone One. Who knew zombies could be so boring?

Another cool bit about the kindle is you can long-tap on a word for its definition, and the kindle will save the words you long click on to create a vocabulary building list. How many of these words do you know? Some of them I was familiar with, but not sure of, but a lot of these were wholly unknown to me. Melville and Beatty were particular vocab flaunters; McGuire used a hell of a lot of unusual words as well (though often to less purpose), but I read The North Water on paper so I don't have those in the list.

Word	Definition	Novel
abstemious	not self-indulgent	Moby Dick
alcahest	alchemical universal solvent	The Crossing
anchorite	a religious recluse	The Crossing
anemometer	instrument to measure wind	The Sellout
anfractuous	sinuous	The Terranauts
aniline	an oily liquid used to make dye	The Terranauts
anneal	to heat metal and allow to cool slowly to strengthen	The Crossing
aphasia	brain damage causing inability to understand speech	The Sellout
apostolic	related to the apostles	Moby Dick
apotheosis	the highest point in a thing’s development	Moby Dick
archiepiscopal	relating to an archbishop	Moby Dick
argosy	a large merchant ship	Moby Dick
assonance	repetition of similar sounds in a poem	The Sellout
ataxia	loss of body control	The Sellout
bannock	Scottish flatbread	Bands of Mourning
beadle	a ceremonial officer of a church, college, etc.	Moby Dick
beck	mountain stream	Amsterdam
bolero	a short jacket for women	Cities of the Plain
brevet	a military promotion with no extra pay	Moby Dick
calabash	a tropical tree whose fruit is a woody gourd	The Underground Railroad
caliche	a desert mineral deposit	The Crossing
callow	inexperienced	The Plot Against America
cambric	lightweight cotton fabric	Moby Dick
cantle	the raised rear of a saddle	The Crossing
capstan	a gear to wind rope	Moby Dick
catafalque	a decorative stand for a coffin	Maddaddam
celadon	willow-green color	The Crossing
celerity	swiftness	Moby Dick
cenotaph	a tomblike monument for someone buried elsewhere	The Sellout
chape	the metal point of a scabard	Half a War
chatelaine	a woman in charge of a large house	Call for the Dead
chignon	a knot of hair worn at the back of the head	The Plot Against America
chirography	handwriting	Moby Dick
ciborium	a receptacle for holding the eucharist	The Crossing
Circassian	a Sunni Muslim people of the north Caucuses	Moby Dick
clement	mild, merciful	Players
coffle	a line of slaves fastened to be driven together	The Underground Railroad
commissar	a communist official responsible for political education	Amsterdam
contumacious	willfully disobedient to authority	The Crossing
coracle	a small, round wickerwork boat	Maddaddam
cordovan	a soft horse or goatskin leather	Wind/Pinball
covert	a hiding place	Lord of the Flies
cozen	deceive	Moby Dick
crapulous	relating to alcohol or drunkeness	Maddaddam
crepitation	a crackling sound	Lord of the Flies
crescentic	crescent shaped	Moby Dick
cresset	a metal container of tar (or whatever) on the end of a torch	The Crossing
cumbrous	cumbersome	Moby Dick
cupidity	greediness	Moby Dick
descry	catch sight of	Moby Dick
doxology	liturgical praise of god	Moby Dick
dropsy	edema	The Underground Railroad
drove	a herd of animals	Lord of the Flies
effulgence	radiant	Lord of the Flies
eidetic	vivid mental images	Lilith’s Brood
elegy	a serious, reflective poem	The Sellout
emolument	a salary	Moby Dick
enfilade	a volley of gunfire	The Crossing
enjoin	instruct to perform an action	The Crossing
evanesce	to pass from memory	The Sellout
exordium	the beginning of a treatise	Moby Dick
expatiate	to go on at length	Moby Dick
fain	willing	Moby Dick
fard	a religious duty commanded by god(?)	Cities of the Plain
feria	a festival for a patron saint	The Crossing
ferrule	a metal band or cap strengthening something wooden	Moby Dick
flatus	intestinal gas	Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Fragonard	a roccocco landscape typical of the artist	Amsterdam
freshet	a high running river from fresh rain or melted snow	Moby Dick
fug	warm, stuffy, smoky atmosphere	Amsterdam
galliot	a single masted fishing vessel	Moby Dick
gamboge	a yellow tree resin used as a purgative	Moby Dick
glaucous	a powdery bluish grey	The Crossing
golliwog	a soft doll with colorful clothes and a black face	The Sellout
grapnel	a grappling hook	Moby Dick
gudgeon	a small edible baitfish	Moby Dick
hackamore	a bridle without a bit	The Crossing
hawser	a thick rope to moor or tow a ship	Moby Dick
hemostat	a clamp used to stop blood flowing from an open vessel	The Crossing
hermeneutics	literary interpretation, especially the bible	The Sellout
hoar	grayish white	The Underground Railroad
hypnagogic	relating to the state immediately before sleep	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
ideation	the formation of ideas	The Sellout
illusive	deceptive	Lord of the Flies
imprecate	invoke a curse	Moby Dick
incommode	to inconvenience	Moby Dick
inguinal	of the groin	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
integument	a tough outer protective layer	Moby Dick
japonica	a flowering shrub	Moby Dick
legatee	a beneficiary of a legacy	Moby Dick
legerdemain	sleight of hand	Moby Dick
liminal	relating to a transition	Bands of Mourning
lineament	a distinctive feature, especially of the face	The Crossing
lorgnette	a pair of glasses on a handle	The Crossing
madras	A strong patterned cotton fabric	The Outsiders
magniloquent	user of bombastic language	Moby Dick
manumit	release from slavery	The Sellout
marline	a light two stranded rope	Moby Dick
mullion	a vertical bar between two panes in a window	Rabbit, Run
numinous	a strong religious or spiritual quality	Libra
orlop	the lowest deck of a sailing ship	Moby Dick
osseous	made of bone	Moby Dick
palimpsest	A document where original writing was erased and overwritten, but traces of which remain	The Vegetarian
panopticon	A prison where the cells face inward in a circle	The Sellout
pantechnicon	a furniture van	Players
paregoric	an archaic opioid medicine	Moby Dick
parsee	a kind of Zoroastarian	Moby Dick
peen	The side of a hammer opposite the head	Cities of the Plain
perquisite	A privilege attached to a job or title	Moby Dick
perspicacity	shrewdness	The Sellout
perspicuity	clearly expressed or understood	Call for the Dead
pertinacious	resolute	Moby Dick
physiognomy	facial features as indicative of character, racist, archaic	Moby Dick
pickaninny	A small black child, archaic, racist	The Sellout
pinafore	A collarless, sleeveless dress	The Dinner
pithecanthropus	An ancient javanese hominid	Dance, Dance, Dance
plebiscite	a direct vote by an entire electorate	Cities of the Plain
plenipotentiary	A person who has the full power to act on behalf of their government	The Sellout
pluperfect	tense: an action completed before a specified previous time	The Sellout
pollard	Where the branches of a tree are cut off to encourage further growth	The Crossing
pomatum	a scented hair ointment	Moby Dick
poniard	a thin dagger	Moby Dick
praxis	practice, as opposed to theory	The Sellout
precentor	one who leads a congregation in singing or prayers	Lord of the Flies
precipitancy	rashness	Moby Dick
preterite	representing a past action or state	The Crossing
priapism	A long lasting and painful erection	The Sellout
prognathic	with a protruding jaw	The Nix
propinquity	proximity	The Sellout
propitiate	winning the favor of a god through pleasing actions	The Plot Against America
pudenda	external genitals, especially a woman’s	The Sellout
punic	related to Carthage	The Sellout
quirt	a short handled riding whip	The Crossing
quoin	an external angle of a building	The Crossing
ravening	ravenous and hunting for prey	The Underground Railroad
recondite	little known, obscure	Players
remonstrate	forceful, reproachful protest	Moby Dick
remuda	a herd of saddle broken horses available for ranch hands to use	The Crossing
repine	express discontent	Maddaddam
reticule	a small handbag, archaic	Moby Dick
rood	a quarter acre	Moby Dick
scaramouch	a boastful coward	Moby Dick
scrofula	a disease with glandular swelling, tuberculosis, archaic	The Doomsday Book
serge	a durable wollen fabric	Cities of the Plain
serried	close set rows	Cities of the Plain
sidereal	relating to distant stars	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
solecism	a gramatical mistake	Moby Dick
solfège	a singing exercise	The Nix
somatic	relating to body, as opposed to mind	The Terranauts
spavin	a disorder of a horse’s hock, like a bone spur	Moby Dick
spermaceti	a valuable waxy substance in a sperm whale’s head	Moby Dick
superannuated	obsolete	Zone One
suppurate	fester; develop pus	The Doomsday Book
surtout	a man’s frock coat	Moby Dick
tachistoscope	A device that exposes images briefly	The Sellout
tierce	35 gallons of wine, archaic measurement	Moby Dick
timorous	nervousness, fear, lack of confidence	Moby Dick
tonsure	a monk’s hairdo	The Doomsday Book
tournedos	a fancy steak	The Dinner
travois	a sled made by two joined poles, pulled by a horse or dog	The Crossing
trousseau	clothing collected by a bride in preparation for marriage	The Plot Against America
vesper	evening prayer	Moby Dick
vituperative	bitter and abusive	The Terranauts
waddy	an Australian war club	Cities of the Plain
whelm	engulf, submerge	Lord of the Flies
withy	A flexible stick useful in basketry	The Crossing

So that's what I read on our big trip! Any questions? Do you have any hot takes on any of these books? Share in the comments section!