Who know that August would be so busy? It’s supposed to be my light month work wise, but I’m finding my days busier than ever. This is my time to get projects done between buying seasons. I have scheduled a vacation for early September. I’m heading to Great Barrington! I’m very excited about this. I can’t wait to visit all the bookstores out there.

On another note, I finished Come on Shore and We Will Kill You and Eat You All by Christina Thompson last week. It’s hard to categorize this book. Perhaps it doesn’t even need it except I had to figure out what was the best section for it in my store. Thompson has written a fantastic memoir/history/travel/sociology book. While studying literature in Australia, she traveled to New Zealand on break. There she met and fell in love with a Maori man. This is not the whole story. As they move about the world, Thompson writes about the cultural differences between the Europeans and the native peoples of New Zealand. Fascinating stuff.

Now I’m about two thirds of the way through Paul Theroux’s latest Ghost Train to the Eastern Star in which he revisits his 1970s trip through Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, India, China, Japan, and Siberia. I love Theroux’s writing. He travels in a way that makes me jealous of all his experiences on the road. He’s in Vietnam right now in the book. He’s gotten there mostly by train with the occasional boat trip and short flight. Theroux has such a fine eye and he’s not afraid to analyze as well, looking beneath the surface for explanations. I can’t wait to get back to it.