beach reading

One of the joys of being at the beach is the reading that I can enjoy. Two years ago I brought 32 books to the beach, much to Jami's amusement. Last year, since I was flying and needed weight and space to be controlled, I took only 25 books. This year we're driving from Durham and, although space considerations don't dominate as they did last year, the choice of reading is critical.
Karl Barth- CD 4.1 or 4.2 - I'll probably take the latter.
NT Greek and the Metzger textual commentary and Zerwick dnd Grosevnor's grammatical analysis.
Hegel - Phenomenology of the mind.
Levinas - Totality and Infinity.
Whitman - Leaves of Grass.
John Ashberry - Your name here or Can you hear bird.
Donald Hall - selected poems.
Zizek - Parallax or Ticklish Subject.
Kenneth Burke - Attitudes toward history or Permanence and change.
Douglas Hall - Thinking the faith.
Oxford History of Art - 1851-1929 by Richard Brettell.
Keck's Romans commentary. Maybe the final volume of the anchor Exodus commentary?
NRSV
Freud - Ego and the Id, Civilization and its discontents, on art
Satre - Situations
Merleau-Ponty - Phenomenology of perception
Barbara Kingsolver - Pigs in heaven.
Wm Placher - Narrative of a vulnerable God.
AR Ammons - Glare.
Shakespeare's Tempest.
Milton (maybe?)

Do I want to take the Derrida reader or perhaps Caputo's Prayers of Jaques Derrida?
Is there more fiction I could bring?
Milosz's Treatise on Poetry?
Amos Wilder's Theopoetic?
Perhaps some Roth - Sabbath's Theatre?
Proust's Swann's way?
Every year I bring Finnegan's Wake along - this year too?

And there're so many other books that might catch my eye on the way out the door. I hope to have some balance between theology, philosophy, poetry, fiction. Plus there are dvds and cds to pick out. And my water colors along with brushes and paint. Painting at the beach is quite a treat.
And I have ten different beers to try. Mostly IPAs but some amber ales and a kolsch.
And that's a key: beach reading goes together with beach drinking.

Tidying up

Tomorrow morning I believe we'll hit the road. Right now, we're a bit under the weather and involved with settling some things here. But soon enough the road will beckon us and we'll wend our way eastward to Charleston. In some ways we prefer just resting here at home, spending time with the cats, reading and writing. I bought a suitcase with little skate wheels yesterday, and now I do not fear how heavy my bag is. I think lugging my bags from Gatewick to the train station and then lugging them through MARTA when we rearrived back and to the house from East Lake station told me that my wheeless bag was no fun: also Jami seemed untaxed as she rolled her bag behind her. I thought to myself: I've got to get one of those. And now I do. The temptation of the rolly bag is to go ahead and bring more books. I'm up to 30 now. Knowing what I wrote just last night, I've must cull this collection in two. How does a person only take 15 books. Do I go without Barth? perish! Do I leave some poetry behind? Of Kierkegaard, Zizek, Jones Theological Grammar - what do I put back on the shelf? And the Hebrews commentaries? Don't I need them for writing my sermon? Or the Luke commentary, just in case I change my mind and go with the Luke passage about Jesus sending Fire. And I've been looking forward to reading Whedbee's Comic vision of the Bible - which is due back at the CTS library the day I get back. Plus I was going to bring some fiction: Amis's London Fields, Pynchon's V, O'Brien's The Poor Mouth. Plus I'm bringing some water color paper, paints and brushes. And I am thinking maybe I'll stash some DVDs for that giant TV set at the beach house. And then I've got these clothes to wear.
Right now my nose is running awfully. It's gotten worse as the morning has progressed. Nothing to do but shut my eyes.