I'm Back. And So Are My Books.

I spent the last week on an amazing vacation in Israel. My next post will be teeming with details about said vacation. I promise. But today I offer a picture. And a question. Because, you see, whenever I go away for any amount of time, I am faced with an impossible dilemma. Which books do I bring with me? My mind scrambles to anticipate every mood I might encounter while I am away. Because I require different books for different moods. And then I start to calculate all the down time I might have. Because I am a fast reader. And while I have never, ever run out of reading material while on vacation, the thought of such a fate strikes fear into this book-lover's heart.

Since I don't use an e-reader, all of my reading material gets packed in my suitcases and carry-on bags. And for this trip, in anticipation of two 12-hour flights and countless hours of beach time, I needed a stunning amount. To get into the gate area for a trip to Israel, I had to submit to a search of my carry-on bags. When the nice TSA woman started her search, this is what she saw:

And instead of asking me the generic questions about who packed my bags, and whether they have been in my control since I packed them, all she said to me was "I guess you like to read." And then, with a line of people behind me waiting to have their own bags searched, I had a 3 minute conversation with this woman about romance novels. Turns out, she is a romance-lover too. We are simply everywhere.

Lest you think that I only packed 5 books for an 8 day vacation, these were just the ones that I packed in my carry-on bag. I had 2 more in my purse, and 3 more in my suitcase.

How do you choose your vacation books?