omg.

[labellementeuse]

So! I'm leaving in two and a half weeks, which is terrifying, but tonight, as I was walking home from work with my big ski jacket on, freezing to death, soaked through in the two minute walk from where I work to where I live - I had a thought. This thought was: So, London? It's in the northern hemisphere. You know the really amazing thing about the northern hemisphere in June/July? It's summer. Summer! I get to spend four days in Bordeaux - in summer! two weeks in london - in summer! A bunch of random days travelling around the country - in summer! OK, it's very late spring/early summer, BUT STILL.

So, I just went back to look at my tell-me-shit-to-do post and I noted that there are a bunch of you who I didn't reply to yet. People who I was going to meet up with - I think this is trialia and gianp - what/when is good for you?

My plan currently is two weeks in London at the beginning of my trip - from the 14th to the 28th. This is my sightseeing/showgoing time. Then I'm bussing to Bristol (I might do this a day or two earlier and bus to Bristol slowly via places) and flying to Bordeaux until the 2nd, then I have a random day and a half in Bristol (lol, inorite) and then conference from the 3rd to the 5th, and then I am basically at a loose end until I fly out again on the 10th. So, basically: for five days I can roadtrip (on, um, buses and trains) around England. I'll probably try to make Stonehenge and Cardiff and Hay in this time. Um. So: given this mad trip state, where should I try to get to? What's to do in Bristol in the random day I'm stuck there?

Also, and this is super important: What should I read on the plane??? Overall that's like, 60 hours of flying. I am going to need a LOT of quality reading material. It has to meet some standards: no books with cliffhangers. Nothing very dense or very light. Nothing depressing. Fiction preferred.

Tips?

Comments

[jeeps]

no cliffhangers? there go all of my suggestions. ;;

[labellementeuse]

Well, I guess one or two would be acceptable ;) But, can you imagine that moment when you get to the end of the book and you're all ARGH MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT... but you're stuck on a plane for the next 24 hours. That is like my personal version of hell.

[jeeps]

THAT'S WHY YOU SHOULD BUY ALL THE BOOKS IN THE SERIES, YES? by which i'm referring to robin hobb's liveship traders. really, i'm just trying to get people to read this trilogy, because it's the first fantasy series aside from harpot that i've enjoyed in a long time. the premise is unique, the plotting is quite clever in a way i'm jealous of, and the characters are just. in that category of characters that seem more real than fictional.

i was trying to think of anything else i could recommend, but i just don't read as much as i used to. :(

[labellementeuse]

THAT IS A SOLUTION TO THE DILEMMA. And, hm. I tried Hobb when I was a teenager and flat out HATED it, but a lot of people I really love have been trying to get me into her lately. So, hmm, MAYBE. I will go and find the first book and give it a test run.

[jeeps]

excellent~

do you remember which book you read? the liveship trilogy actually comes between two other trilogies in the same universe — but it also works very well as a standalone arc and, imo, is better written than the other two trilogies. she's better known for the first one, though. when i was catching up that trilogy at work i'd have several guests comment on it and how much they liked it, and i'd ask if they'd read liveship and be very "why why whyyy" when they inevitably said no.