Road Tripping

I’m a member of the Voyage Out Book Club here at BookPeople. Built on the idea that we can tell a lot about a place from its stories, we read regional fiction. We’re finishing up our three-month visit to New York with Paul Auster’s three-pronged book The New York Trilogy. I’m, as always, excited. But, while my mythical vacation to New York ends, I’ll be on an actual trip through the South. My wife, my son, and I will pack our car and head east, all the way to Richmond, Va. On the way we’ll stop in Little Rock, Oxford, and Asheville. We’re giddy. The most important part of any road trip, of course, is the music, next is the junk food, but a strong third is the reading list.

Oxford is the home of America’s greatest novelist, William Faulkner, and one of America’s greatest bookstores, Square Books, so I’ll be toting a heavy pack of Faulkner. I’m currently reading As I Lay Dying, and I’ll finish it before we hit the road, but, because it’s one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever read, I’m considering following its last page with its first. I’ve never had the experience of finishing a book, then needing to flip back to page one and start again, but this incredibly sad, funny, sweaty, and experimental novel may be my first immediate reread. I also plan on reading one of Faulkner’s minor novels (does that exist?). Maybe “Sanctuary” or “Pylon”. But I’d love some suggestions. If you have some, shoot me a comment below, or come by the bookstore and talk to me. I’ll see where I am after two Faulkner’s, and then ask the staff at Square Books for some advice.

Because road trip reading lists should always contain some read-alouds. Since little Oliver was born, almost 16 months ago, I’ve gotten a chance to flex my reading voice, and I’ve had the most fun reading chapter books, so I’ve enlisted the most well-read members of our staff, the BookKids group, to push me in the right direction. A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg is historical fiction set in civil rights era Mississippi, and comes highly recommended. It’s always good to take a little Texas with you when you leave, so we’ll also be reading Austinite Jacqueline Kelly’s Newbery Award winning novel The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.

Finally, I’ll pack some short story collections. In the South, that means Flannery O’Connor’s Catholicism and Eudora Welty’s Modernism, and they’ll be the corner stone of my short story list, but I’ll also carry a collection by William Gay, and another collection by Larry Brown.

I won’t finish all of these books, probably not even half, but they’ll feel good next to me as we barrel through our country’s intellectual and artistic center, the American South.

–Brian Contine