Yes indeed, Tuesday afternoon 'I'm outta here'! Needless to say, I am already packed - oh yes, I may be a mere man but I am quite capable of packing days before the off. Of course, when I say I'm packed I'm only referring to the books I shall be carrying in my hand-luggage, my suitcase remains gapingly empty, but it is important, as I keep reminding the 'Memsahib', to maintain a sense of priorities. Actually, packing clothes is a doddle compared to picking and choosing which books to take. As I have mentioned before, I am a bookaholic and in particular I am prone to picking up books whose titles intrigue me. The problem is that I don't always get around to reading them because I keep buying books that I absolutely have to read. Thus, this coming fortnight in the Med will give me a chance to 'do my homework', as it were.
So, I will be taking Anatomies: The Human Body, Its parts and the Stories They Tell by Hugh Aldersey-Williams. It's funny, isn't it, that the older you get the more interested you become in the body you have treated so carelessly in your youth! Then I have a couple of 'swot books' on science. A Little History of Science by William Bynum which, I gather from the blurbs at the back, does what it says on the cover but aims it at non-swots like me. With it, I also have In Search of Schrodinger's Cat by John Gribbon and he is a science writer I know and trust because he is the absolute master of explaining complexity to dummies! Then, at last, I might be able to keep my promise to 'SoD' and read his treasured copy of The Freedom of the Will by J. R. Lucas. I went through a phase in my 40s in which I was fascinated by philosophy. Obviously 'SoD' has done the same and he insists that Lucas is 'the main man'!
For slightly lighter reading I have a biography of Marlborough, The First Churchill by George Malcolm Thomas. I am trying to enthuse myself into designing a PowerPoint talk on the campaign that led up to the battle of Blenheim. Also, I have the latest John le Carré, A Delicate Truth, and I hope he has maintained his recent return to form. Finally, of course, I have a slim Penguin edition of King Lear, perhaps I will try and learn the role if I can keep off the retsina! Yeeeeeeeeees quite!