Reading on the road... my biggest challenge.

As i write this, I am still in LA, getting ready to leave on my trip with my family. My obsession lately: what am I going to take to read?

I am the guilty party in my family who always has the heavy suitcase. Heavy with warning tags on it. Heavy having to pay a fine when I fly back. Seriously heavy. Why is this? Because I am the sort of traveler who would have been better served during the days of steamer trunks. This is because I cannot travel without books.

Not just one or two either. For one night away I have been known to bring as many as three. Even if I read nothing, which rarely happens on a trip this long, the thought of being stuck somewhere with nothing to read or, even worse in some ways, something that is absolutely wrong for my mood or the place where I am, puts me in a cold clammy sweat.

At the time of this writing, I have whittled it down to six, no seven:

1. Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins. have already started it and love it, so it has to come.
2. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. Whenever I get to travel, I want to do it more. Got this recommendation from the Random Show that Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose did, so it's in.
3. Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Looks like a gorgeous read about travel as well. It's small, will pack well and the NYT said "Few have written more beautifully of Unspeakable things." It's in.
4. 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. Al Ries and Jack Trout. Another of Tim Ferriss's. Another thin one. And as my dad, who serves as a bit of a business advisor, is travelling with me, I love having things to talk about with him.
5. The Devlin Diary, Christi Phillips. A big novel. It came out in May, but I have the paperback galley and so get to enjoy the Rosetti Letter's follow-up in paperback.
6. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. John Wood. Ok- last one from Ferriss' list. But yet again, I love an enthralling business read on vacation. This looks amazing- from the founder of Room to Read, and the story of a man finding his true passion in a classroom in Nepal. So on the Remabulous wavelength!
7. And, Provenance, by Laney Salisbury & Aly Sujo. Another galley. This book comes out mid July. And as it's about con men and art theft, when my friend Paige presented it to me, there was no way I could resist.

Perhaps by the time you read this I will have reorganized this list several times over, but for now it feels pretty good. I will review all those I got to when I get home...