Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Baggage

Three blissful weeks await in Tropical Island Paradise!

9 comments:

  1. How does this get to a tropical island? I mean, really? Is your back made of iron?

    (My back is increasingly made of titanium, and even that doesn't help.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, my question too: how do you get them there? Regardless, I hope you and they have a wonderful trip! And I hope they don't get sick, since we already know you're not going to.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Exceptionally strong muscles!

    Seriously: I got a big duffel bag for the Antarctica trip, I figured I'd use that - the car service guy and I heaved it in and out of the trunk, one at each end - I dragged it around after me by its end handle - I definitely had a bad moment at the check-in counter when I put it on the scale and the woman said, "That is a very heavy bag..."

    (76 pounds! Overweight bags are $50 for 55-70 pounds, $175 for over 70, so I asked if I could take some books out and stick 'em in my carry on - got it down to 69.5 - and then she very kindly didn't end up charging me even the $50, so it was good! But it might be that I need to rethink my packing strategy...)

    (Brent carried it for me once I was in Cayman - his vote is definitely for dividing the books up between two separate bags!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. p.s. The real downer will be lugging 'em all home again once most of them have already been read! I have an almost infinite amount of tolerance for back-breaking library-book carrying when I am taking them to the place where they are GOING to be read, but none of the same impetus the other direction...

    (Now I am fondly thinking of various really and seriously strenuous library trips in Cambridge, Mass. and New Haven, CT! I always lived a mile or so away, and with no car - I have a huge LLBean tote bag that will carry up to 35 library books if you do not mind the backbreaking aspect!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. How terrific it will be when more and more books are available for ereaders. Not that I'll ever stop buying printed books - but then mostly those which I want to keep as part of my permanent collection or which are beautiful artifacts.

    Enjoy your holiday!

    ReplyDelete
  6. A.N. Tipodian8/07/2009 6:43 AM

    Disturbed to see no bound proofs in the photograph. What does this mean?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am floored.

    I brought a single paperback on my four day holiday. Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Nothing like what you've got going there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Have you ever considered shipping books in advance to your vacation location? It might be a good idea, as airlines seemed to be getting stricter about enforcing weight limit rules.

    Or you could try reading slower.

    ReplyDelete
  9. When I was doing archives in South Africa, I filled a large gym bag with photocopies (total evidence submitted to Education Administration Commission, 1922, a cracking read). This put me insanely over any allowance for the rest of my trip. I just sort of begged in Jo-burg, Perth and then Brisbane. I don't mean sort-of. I begged.

    ReplyDelete