I am only taking a 35 litre backpack with everything I need for a month away so, with all travel essentials available locally, and at much lower cost than in the UK, the most difficult decision I face is what books to take with me. Space and weight are limiting factors so along with The Lonely Planet - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Greater Mekong, I plan to take 3 from a shortlist of the following:
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian (just finished 2 others by CM and loved them. The Road especially recommended, a compelling story of a father and son struggling to survive on a journey through a post apocalytic America)
Arturo Perez-Recerte - The Flanders Panel (a whodunnit based on a medieval painting of a game of chess)
Umberto Ecco - The Name of the Rose (started once but unfinished, another whodunnit, even more ancient setting than the last!)
Ken Follett - Night over Water (recommended through an on-line book club chat forum, a thriller set on a transatlantic flight just before WW II)
Francois Bizot - The Gate (set in Phnom Penh as the Khmer Rouge captured the city and the last of a series of books I have read since Christmas set in SE Asia. Maybe a bit heavy?)
David Nobbs - The Cucumber Man (I have read the first 2 and this is the last of the Henry Pratt novels that my Dad gave me and guaranteed to make me chuckle)
John Steinbeck - East of Eden (my daughter Katherine's recommendation, beautiful writing)
I have also taken advice and decided to steer away from some of the classic books on my list for this year including Don Quixote, 100 years of Solitude etc., on the basis that I have to be certain I will enjoy what I am reading and it can't be too demanding. Any thoughts you have will be welcome.
