Three months, one book (maybe two)

oh dude awsom where r u going?

really dont worry abt bringing too many books theres tons used book stores to trade them in at everywhere

thailand (briefly), laos, cambodia, myanmar.

oh yeah, a friend thats been over there told me that, i just kinda forgot.

omg <3 <3 <3 cambodia

also im going to lol @ u in advance for walking around w/a lol hueg frame pack

i did a month in sea w/just a day pack - recommended!

but of youre there during the rainy season yr clothing needs may be a bit different

Off the top of my head, and not knowing what you like. One thing you might want to think about doing before you leave is getting 100 pages or so into one of these, to make sure you're digging it.

Updike's Rabbit Omnibus--probably his strongest stuff, the second one in this is the weakest, but the first and the last are top notch. Probably the easiest read out of all of these. Updike is good for traveling. Fantastic prose all over the place.

Infinite Jest--funny, smart. Amazing prose. The plot is a total mess, but constructs an entire world like no other book I've read. It took me two tries to get into it, which is why I suggest starting looking these books before you go. Once it takes off, this book is a gas.

The Recognitions by William Gaddis. Another long, dense book. A lot of it is made up of very long party scenes. The first time through this, it seemed very random and scattershot to me, but on a second read I was blown away by the plot and how put together it was. Not quite as funny as IJ, but Gaddis was much better with plot.

x-post: ain't got no frame, my pack is actually pretty small. i'm trying to be super efficient with clothing. yeah, i'm a little worried about the rain, but i'm gonna try to waterproof a hat, a windbreaker, and some pants or something, tho i'm not sure if i won't just use a poncho. also got my waterproof trail running shoes and moisture-wicking-socks.

thanks mr. que, i'll definitely consider Gaddis. I have been getting started on them before I decide, but now time is running out!

ok attempting to recall the books i read in s.e.a.

a fans notes - frederick exley
it - stephen king
the damage done - warren fellows
killing fields - christopher hudson
the pol pot regime - ben kiernan
a burnt out case - graham greene
first they killed my father - loung ung
the gangs of new york - herbert asbury
60 stories - donald barthelme
farewell my lovely - raymond chandler
kinski uncut - klaus kinski

the recognitions you need google to follow all the alchemical shit, is my memory of it

& infinite jest required a dictionary

u will not be psyched to hav those lol hueg books in yr backpack

you can read the recognitions and enjoy it without worrying about the alchemy shit or the religious stuff, imho. same with the big words in IJ. i didn't look them all up, and i ignored a lot of the pharmaceutical crap in the endnotes.

probably a bigger concern is yeah, why not just buy books when you are over there.

ooo, i bet kinski uncut was fun.

barthelme seems hilarious, i'm definitely going to get to reading him, even if not on this trip.

yah i just picked a fans notes off a shelf in phenom penh - somehow had never heard of it - and omg what a great book!

thats why i'm not bringing "books," just "book." but yeah, buying them there is definitely a good way to go

actually kinski i couldnt finish - its basically a list of all the women he claims to have slept w/over the years - there like a page or two of him zinging herzog thats pretty funny

so not unlike tropic of cancer? har har (jk, love that book)

If William Trevor's your cup of tea, his Collected Stories is a massive, generous, 1000-page collection of great stuff: perfect for long stretches of rail/road travel, but also for more fragmented reading.

I once read Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' on a long trip. Also highly recommended.

I would suggest getting the Rabbit books individually (any used bookstore has them in old-fashioned trade paperback). Updike himself has said that the single-volume omnibus isn't easy to read, physically.

yeah, i have the omnibus in paperback. the print is really small, but it seems fairly sturdy, at least.

<i>The Master and Margarita</i>? Not too heavy, totally brilliant, maybe you've read it though.

oh poo.

Also I've been reading The Manuscript Found in Saragossa which is weird as hell, over 600 pages, and highly entertaining.

thanks, those both look really good.

Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia takes place in Thailand and is good entertainment.

Travel, especially foreign travel, is alternately stimulating to the top of your limit and occasionally as boring as time spent in a small box. Reading material can be tricky.

I'd go with something with more plot than Ulysses. Karamazov? It might be an OK choice, in terms of having some meat to it when your trip is as dull as dog food and being readable when your brain is trying to coast along at a plodding pace.

But mostly, you're going to want something that's not too challenging - something like better sorts of pop fiction. This also means you can take a cheapo used paperback version, read it, then swap it for something else when you meet some of the 150 Aussies you will be crossing paths with.

I'd recommend you take one 'deep' or 'classic' type of book, like Tristam Shandy and one 700 pp. popular potboiler. You might try The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Or From Here to Eternity by James Jones. Not quite fluff, but also not heavy going.

A lot of these BIG bks I'd want to read not while moving about but within a confined space -- more a Father Ted caravan type thing

Aimless OTM. You probably don't want to go to modernist or abstract with backpack reading material - you're likely to read in snatches here and there, with ample interruptions to make you forget where you were. I'd go with something a bit more plot-based and linear. That doesn't mean it has to be trashy though. Some fairly meaty books that should be available in inexpensive, fairly-compact, paperback editions:

Flaubert - Sentimental Education
Balzac - Old Goriot/Cousin Bette
Herman Melville - Moby Dick

Or if you want to go a bit more modern, these still have enough plot action to keep you going:

Pynchon - V
Edward Abbey - The Monkeywrench Gang
Saul Bellow - Adventures of Augie March

You should bring The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, or Middlesex.. I read *really* fast (book in 2 hours) but those ones lasted longer and held me rapt.

Oh, I didn't realize you were looking for something that'd help search your soul.. maybe something like the God of Small Things, Midnight's Children or A Fine Balance?

My friend has a book review site, maybe check out her top picks: http://bookbrothel.com

oh wait Moby Dick is the perfect answer here

I wouldn't say I'm searching my soul, just want something really fucking good and long.

I read Middlesex awhile ago, it was alright, but not at all what I'm looking for; it kept me busy for a week, and it was ultimately pretty forgettable.

Maybe Moby Dick is the perfect answer? How come? Its one I've had on the shelf for a while, but just never got interested enough to give it a fair go.

Thanks a lot for all the recommendations everyone. Even though I'll be able to trade paperbacks there, I still kinda like the idea of bringing one great mega-book to keep me company, at least until I make it to a used book store.

moby dick is good and long, it's totally modern, easy to read, allusive, dense but not hard, it will make you think, it is Shakespearean at times, amazing characters, beautiful prose.

well, read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay when you come back at least, it's fantastic!

i second the flaubert emotion! sentimental education or bovary.

i read bovary, loved it. very intrigued by sentimental education.

also, will check out kavalier & clay :D

brothers karamazov ftw!

wtf u guys let me show you my list of best know and loved classics of all time

It's not worth starting a new thread (or a poll, which seems wrong on ILB for some reason), so I'll post my similar question here. I have a similar situation, I'm leaving for 3 months (to Boulder, CO for an internship) and I have some books I'm considering bringing with me. There are tons of other good suggestions above, but I'm really looking to dig into my pile of unread books that I've purchased over the past year, particularly these:

James Baldwin - Tell Me how Long the Train's Been Gone
Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum;The Name of the Rose
Flaubert - Madame Bovary
Gunter Grass - Dog Years;Local Anaesthetic
D.H. Lawrence - The Rainbow;Complete Short Stories
Thomas Mann - Magic Mountain;Death in Venice;Buddenbrooks;The Holy Sinner
Henry Miller - Sexus
Orhan Pamuk - The Black Book
Octavio Paz - The Labyrinth of Solitude
Thomas Pynchon - V.
John Updike - Rabbit, Run

I know it's near impossible to guess at what unknown internet person's taste would be like, but if it were you, which would you choose?

Buddenbrooks, Magic Mountain or Against the Day (which I adored more than V)

The chances that you will want to gnaw the appendages off Henry Miller's corpse partway through Sexus, so that you can use them to beat him ever more senseless, make it a bad risk.

The Baldwin and Flaubert are never bad choices. Take the Lawrence short stories too--some of his best work.