Myth, the Universe, and Everything

Picking the novels to come along with me as international travelers this year was a challenge. I packed course books and extra resources and had to hem and haw over which novels I would take along for this project. I also have a tendency to buy books while I'm abroad, so along with the large number of books in my bag, I knew I'd come home with more. Such is the way of traveling readers!

( Books on the road! )

So that's this year's tour. Now back to uploading more of my photos for the students!

devonmonk inspired me with her goals system awhile ago, and while I haven't been keeping up with setting them (my to-do list keeps getting longer than my accomplishment list), I wanted to do that whole public accountability thing and set some goals here for the creative work I hope to get done on the England trip.

Reasonable Goals
Take photographs
Read 7 books
Finish one short story
Compose a photo essay for Journey to the Sea
Copyedit one autobiographical essay
Blog at least once

Unreasonable Goals
Take photographs and upload them for sharing
Read 10 books
Finish four in progress short stories
Finish a new short story for Baeg Tobar
Write the first three chapters of my Baeg Tobar serial novel
Write a hundred pages in either of my two WIPs (100 pages split between them would also be acceptable)
Compose the photo essay and an essay on sub-creation for Journey to the Sea
Copyedit both autobiographical essays and update the sketches that go with them
Blog once from every location with wireless internet

Aside from my goals, I'm still plotting out my book tourism.

Highlights of What We'll Be Seeing
British Museum
Stonehenge
Salisbury Cathedral
Avebury
St. Michael's Mount (Penzance)
Tintagel Castle
Cadbury Castle
Glastonbury Abbey
Glastonbury Tor
Chalice Well

I don't know if I'll have book tourists for all 10 of those highlights -- it's hard to decide what I want to take with me!

I had a brilliant thought last night (or, at least, an idea that amused me very much) about my travels in Greece and Turkey. In part, the credit goes to tezmilleroz, who takes pictures of her cat with urban fantasy novels. I've been thinking about what books I will be taking with me to read on the plane and in the down time on the tour (not that there's a lot of that, but I'm not taking the course for credit, and am just assisting in the teaching rather than lesson-planning, so there's more for me than for the students). So while I was pondering this, it occurred to me:

Urban Fantasy Tourism.

How fun would it be to take pictures of the books I take with me at prominent locations? The theater at Ephesus. Anywhere in Troy. The Acropolis. Delphi. The possibilities are, at the very least, amusing.

I have a number of mass markets that I haven't had a chance to read yet, and I'm thinking of holding off on until I leave. I have: Magic Burns by ilona_andrews, Dead to Me by antonstrout, and the first two "Squad" books by jenlyn_b on my shelf and will be getting Don't Hex with Texas (shanna_s) and One Foot in the Grave (frost_light) as soon as my pre-orders arrive (have you ordered yours yet? I've conveniently linked them to B&N!)--well before I have to leave. I'll also be getting the new Percy Jackson, but in hard cover, so it is disqualified from the trip (although I have to admit that taking Percy to Greece definitely appeals to my sense of humor; given the title of the new one The Battle of the Labyrinth, if we were going to Crete, I'd totally take it, hard cover and all).

So, gang, here's where you come in. What paperbacks should make the journey with me? Of the above list, which ones would you take? What books would you add? I'm thinking I need maybe two or three more (around eight total--one for each location), preferably mass markets (Shanna's is a trade, but I'm not going to want to wait 'til I get back to read it). Also, what creative ideas would you suggest for posing these world-traveling novels? Is there a location that screams out that it should belong to Dead to Me?

All photos will, of course, appear in this blog. I don't have any prizes to give out at this point, but if I decide to take a book you recommend (or, you know, wrote), you'll get mentioned in the blog space.

So... what do you think?