Changes and preparations

[paulhope]

So I'm preparing for this Europe backpacking trip. I leave this weekend, will be in the UK and Ireland for two weeks (much of it with family) before setting out to the continent on my own.

Two major lifestyle changes happened today, as I've been getting ready for it:

• I got a new crappy sports watch. My old one died many months ago, and when I finally put it away I felt as if I had lifted an anchor, somehow. The passage of time was a much more mysterious and subjective thing. It also meant that my cell phone became more central to my life, since it became my primary timepiece. When I'm away I will be out of phone contact. I will also be disembedded from any familiar social networks which would channel me to and fro on schedule. I will need to have my finger more directly on the pulse of the world.
  
• I shaved off my beard. I haven't been clean shaven for over a year and a half now--since I started dating (or, further back, pining after) Katie. Now it's gone, out of practical necessity: since I can't bring a beard trimmer with me (too bulky), the choice was clean shaven or mountain man, and I don't want to look any more touristy than I already will. Between that and the summer haircut, I look much younger than I have in a long time.

Last week I went and bought books for my trip. The original plan was to get books that would be somehow emblematic of the places I was going. Continental reading for continental travel, and so on.

The bookstore didn't have Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action, which is what I was looking for primaril. But this is probably a good thing because, (1) as far as I can tell, it is (physically) huge, and so hauling even just one of the volumes with me in backpack would be wildly impractical, and (2) I have been conceiving of my job for next year (starting in September) as an extension and application of Habermas' thought, among other things. So I can save this reading for then, where both work and reading can be enriched by their concurrency.

Instead, I got some other books:

• The Magic Mountain, by Mann, which I hear is about Nietzsche and crazy people.
• Madness and Civilization, by Foucault, which I hear is also about crazy people. Since (surprisingly, to me) rationality (especially practical rationality; superbellatrix might understand why)has, as an idea, floated further into the center of my web of concepts, my instinct is to try to destabilize it before it settles by taking a serious, sympathetic look at irrationality. But actually, when I went to the bookstore, I was looking for
• Discipline and Punish, by Foucault, since Hal once told me that it was the most accessible Foucault, and I figure it was about time I gave myself some direct exposure. Katie graciously lent me her copy, and now I'm trying to figure out which to bring (see below about my book problem).
• Phenomenology and Perception, by Merleau-Ponty, was my my replacement for "serious" (as opposed to Foucault, who for some reason I'm biased against from the start--hence the need to expose myself to his work...) continental philosophy in the absence of Habermas. Unfortunately, this move takes me out of society and back into "the head" (or, I guess in Merleau-Ponty's case, "the body"), which I've been fixated on for some time. Still, this would be a constructive step, since M-P is seen as inspiration to a lot of up-and-coming cognitive science theories and work, and I get the impression that he will be palatable and legible. The book is huge though, as is
• Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy, which I have intended to bring as a kind of homage to my Dad, who, as the story goes, brought only one book with him when he went on a train voyage around Europe as a young man. It was War and Peace, and he says with playful pride that he "read it twice." For some reason, I'm more attracted to Anna Karenina at this point, perhaps because of unthevert's claim that Tolstoy, in it, is a "great psychologist."
• The Magus, by John Fowles, has intrigued me from it's place on its bookshelf at home for a long time, and was recommended for the British portion of the time, as was
• Possession, by A. S. Byatt, which we can't find in the house. It's possible my sister (who will be coming up to England a week into my trip) has it. She claims that she doesn't have her copy of
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by Rowling, so I have to look around here for it.

The problem I have is that this is far too many books to bring for a trip that is supposed to be primarily about seeing people and places. Yes, I will have long train rides, but ideally I'll be writing more than I'll be reading during those. On the other hand, I've recently been inspired by my former roommate Melanie's website, where I was impressed by the writing, the sentiments, and most of all the way she weaves literature into her understanding of life. I used to ask her, half joking, "what's the use of literary criticism," but reading some of that was a better answer than she ever gave. What a lens! I don't know if it will help her, ultimately, with what appears to be a nihilism problem (another victim of the pandemic...), but it's a life rich with meaning, at least.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I need to bring some books to help color the trip and pass train time, but I need to narrow it down. Any genuine advice would be appreciated.

So my question is: how do I narrow this list down?