Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly
Monday, June 18, 2007
On the Road Again
I drove to Cape Canaveral, FL this weekend. Well, I drove that far anyway. 925 miles as the crow flies. After a really pleasant, traffic free drive on Friday to Athens, OH, and then up to Butler, PA, for the first 625+ miles, I headed back to Baltimore at 4:00 PM yesterday. The last 275 miles should have landed me in Baltimore by 9:00 PM.
Thanks to a bad accident that shut down I-70 in Town Hill, PA (just past Breezewood) for over an hour and a half, I was literally parked on I-70 eastbound with a LOT of other people and rolled into my house at 10:45 PM.
Many, many thanks to the bloggers who recommended "Assassination Vacation", by Sarah Vowell, and "Areas of My Expertise" by John Hodgman for my iPod. They kept me entertained, awake, and made the whole trip go by quickly. Well, except for the accident bit.
I'm glad you enjoyed "Assassination Vacation", by Sarah Vowell. And I'm even more glad we are heading home from Pittsburgh Monday as opposed to Sunday.
That book was AWESOME! Who knew Robert Todd Lincoln was such a vortex of black irony and misfortune? Or that Sewell was such a freeloader as not to return the favors of an Inuit potlatch? Really fun and informative book. Wish I could have read that instead of US History in high school. I've actually taken the guided tour of Greenmount Cemetery a few times, and once worked around the corner from the Mutter Museum in Philly, so I know them well. It was like visiting old friends.
I agree it was a great book and I think it was even better as an audiobook than it would have been reading it. I mean as the author she was able to give each the right inflections and sarcasms when appropriate and just as she intended.
The book actually inspired me to venture out on a cold and snowy night this past winter to catch a performance at the Spottlighters Theater of Stephen Sondheim's "Assasins"
I have found that audiobooks (when read by their author) are much better than simply reading the book yourself.
Assassination Vacation suprised me as to it's enjoyability, but I think it was all thanks to Sarah Vowell's reading and speaking style.
I read a great deal about political history, but I never expected to get so much out of a book about little historical places that I'd probably never have visited on my own.
I'm glad you enjoyed "Assassination Vacation", by Sarah Vowell. And I'm even more glad we are heading home from Pittsburgh Monday as opposed to Sunday.