Vacation Reading

I don't know about you, but I'm wearing an undershirt beneath my button-down shirt, and during my commute today and yesterday I wore a sweatshirt under my ski jacket. It's been frigging cold here in the Northeast! At the same time, my wife had clients desperately trying to book a job through her that would have placed them on a plane for the Bahamas this weekend.

That's right folks, it's only a few days after New Year's and it's already winter vacation time!

So what are you reading?

I passed over this article in today's New York Times, but now that I've warmed myself up with a pint or three, I've taken the time to savor the sage words of journalist Steve Bailey (who I've never heard of before today). I almost stopped reading the article because it sounded like he wanted to talk about how to impress people who visit your home (again, I had been drinking, so I may not have read as closely as I usually do), but eventually there was a point -- albeit, not an especially important one -- Know who you're supplying with books.

If you visit our house, you'll find books in every room, including the unfinished basement and attic. Hell, there are even magazines beside the cats' litter boxes, to say nothing of the library in the bathroom. But our home is clearly not a vacation home. We don't have a "weekend home" (another reason to drop this article before its end). Nor do I give a rat's ass whether my guests with toddlers are au courant or de rigueur when it comes to American children's literature.

All that out of the way, I must say that the mere idea of taking a vacation in a place where books of quality -- nonfiction, fiction, children's literature, poetry, Penthouse Forum -- are kept in the bookshelves around me sounds oh so appealing right now, as we cuddle up beside our computers and the winter wind blows outside. What I wouldn't give to lay in a hammock beside the ocean underneath a palm tree while reading a good book! Hell, I'd do it with a bad book!!

So tell me, what do you read on vacation?