Comments on: If you were doing the Peace Corps, what reading material would you bring with you?

Question: If you were doing the Peace Corps, what reading material would you bring with you?

jordanian2 — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:46:51 -0800

Hypothetical Question: You're going to Africa for the Peace Corps, and your luggage space is extremely limited. What reading material would you bring with you to last you, oh, let's say a year?

And remember that the Peace Corps is a very disorienting process and can probably get depressing and lonely, so your book or two would probably have to be comforting. Your reading material will probably have to be something that you could read over and over again, too, and not get tired with it.

So what reading material would you bring with you?

By: rhoticity

rhoticity — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:54:29 -0800

Seriously?

Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time foursome.

By: chairface

chairface — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:56:22 -0800

If you knew you'd be somewhere secure and you had a lot of scratch, you could pick up an ebook reader. They'll hold alot of books, obviously, and only draw power on page turns so the battery life is great (it says 7500 page turns).

If that wasn't an option I'd probably grab something like the Bible that people like to study a lot (not my choice at all) or something I've always want to read but was always intimidated by such as Moby Dick or War and Peace. I would consider a collected work of Shakespeare. Basically, any text worth studying deeply would be my choice.

By: aspo

aspo — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:58:00 -0800

I have a friend who recently got back from peace corp in Togo, Africa and she said one of the best care packages she got was, believe it or not, regular shipments of gossip rags like Star. She is the kind of person who would never ever EVER read those kind of things while in the States, but she found them very comforting when she was there. Also all the other volunteers loved them as well, which is always nice.

By: BuddhaInABucket

BuddhaInABucket — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:01:08 -0800

How about the canterbury tales? If you pick up a copy of the Riverside Chaucer, you will have well over a thousand pages of Canterbury Tales, and hundreds of pages of corollary notes to go with it. If the fact that the Riverside Chaucer is in the original Middle English is a problem for you, there're translations into modern English, though I can't think of any in particular to recommend to you. Still, you want a year to kill? Learn Middle English. Honestly, it's not that hard and most of the more confusing stuff is footnoted for you.

By: hobbes

hobbes — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:20:56 -0800

Infinite Jest.. purely for the fact that you'll probably leave it in Africa, unread.

By: watsondog

watsondog — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:22:53 -0800

Boswell's Life of Johnson in paperback too.

By: robcorr

robcorr — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:26:42 -0800

Poetry?

By: wubbie

wubbie — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:27:38 -0800

Don't read. Write.

By: BuddhaInABucket

BuddhaInABucket — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:39:23 -0800

Read AND write.

By: banannafish

banannafish — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:39:32 -0800

Maybe try one of the Norton Anthologies? There are a bunch of them and they'll give you a good overall view of one genre of literature at a time.

By: Phire

Phire — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:44:00 -0800

I like wubbie's idea, but the problem with writing is that it tends to be a very lonely activity.

Classics be damned, I would take books that I've read so many times I can recite whole passages by heart, just for the comfort of something familiar. In my case, that would be the Ender's Game series (Orson Scott Card), the Beekeeper's Apprentice series (Laurie R. King), the Harry Potter series (um, duh.) and the Artemis Fowl series (Eoin Colfer). While I doubt these particular titles will be to your taste, you get the idea.

Beyond the comforting presence of familiar prose, to kill time, I'd probably try to teach myself another language. Pick up a few Pimsleur's books-with-tape; they're surprisingly effective. Learn the native language, or learn something completely unrelated that you've been meaning to look at for a while. Very time consuming, but very rewarding. Also bring along a simple book or two in said language, to gauge progress and practice reading/vocab.

By: HotPatatta

HotPatatta — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:22:48 -0800

If it's possible, download a bunch of audiobooks on your iPod. You can get free ones from the library.

By: Methylviolet

Methylviolet — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:25:52 -0800

Intellectually, I'd say the Bible, or the vedas, or poetry or something that would reward intensive study -- maybe this book On the Shoulders of Giants a former boss gave everyone in the lab for Christmas that will probably wait until each of us joins the Peace Corps to be read. But honestly? I'd probably bring a collected Jane Austen. I know every word on every page of her measly six books + detritus but I still find myself reading one or another of them every few months when real life gets me down. If you have a literary binkie like that, that's what you will want to have.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:42:44 -0800

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, and a blank diary of my own, just in case I got ambitious, or inspired. His description of having a kidney stone removed may steel you for illness in a far place, if that be your unlucky fate, and his energy and effort in the face of bureaucratic reversals will ring true to you, no doubt.

By: mdonley

mdonley — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:44:04 -0800

Do you know what country you're going to yet? If it's Anglophone, you might find books on sale at markets and the like, even in more rural areas; local schools might also have resources on ordering and obtaining books.

By: hototogisu

hototogisu — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:53:01 -0800

The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil (assuming you won't have hours a day to read, anyway).

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:02:40 -0800

I second the Norton suggestion. You can find them packaged in sets of three smaller volumes now, so you don't have to carry around a giant brick. (Or you could do what I did and cut the larger book into thirds and wrap the spine in electrical tape for the Mad Max look.)

By: dowcrag

dowcrag — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:31:05 -0800

I spent a year in Guyana. The Bible, Complete Works of Shakespeare and a few of the classics did me just fine (they were in the library of the school I was working at).

If I were going now, I'd take the Shakespeare again and a few science books so I could remind myself of all the quantum physics and relativity stuff I never got the hang of at university.

If I could have only one? Shakespeare. You'll always find more to enjoy no matter how many times you read it, and he deals with all the big issues in life.

Enjoy your time out there.

By: the luke parker fiasco

the luke parker fiasco — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:52:15 -0800

Having departed less than two months ago for Peace Corps service in Romania (granted, not as isolated as most parts of Africa, but still ...), I brought Cryptonomicon, Plato's Republic, The Fountainhead and The Name of the Rose. But those are my tastes.

Can you contact your group? "[Country] Group [X]" often has a yahoo- or similar group before departure, as did mine; everyone brought a few books, and we're in the process of trading them back and forth during PST. You might be able to do the same, and your group should have regular meetups during your service (conferences, evaluations, etc.) when group members can bring books and trade as well. I don't know about your country, but the PC Romania office has a mini-library of books that volunteers have left behind that gets regulary pillaged and rotated.

By: piers

piers — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:05:14 -0800

I vote for In Search of Lost Time. I have an English translation in 6 volumes, but paperback and pretty light. You'll never get tired of it, and it'll last a long time on each reading.

By: legotech

legotech — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:00:55 -0800

If you have a PDA or are bringing a lappy or something similar Baen books has many many ebooks online for free: http://www.baen.com/library/

Lots of fun stuff if you are into Science Fiction/Fantasy

If you are just going to use it for ebooks, you can get an old palm cheap on craigs or ebay since you don't need a huge amount of computing power to run mobipocket.

reg

By: Hey, Cupcake!

Hey, Cupcake! — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:15:12 -0800

The Gormenghast trilogy should last you a while. Can you bring a PalmPilot and a majillion e-books on it? They can also hold movies, crossword puzzles, etc.

By: low_horrible_immoral

low_horrible_immoral — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:15:59 -0800

Montaigne's Essays, although a little dry, are immensely comforting and down to earth. There's lots of them (some are better than others) and they're very re-readable IMHO.

By: saturnine

saturnine — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:50:23 -0800

Seconding Hey, Cupcake on the Gormenghast trilogy. It's an immense piece of writing, very dense, and very wonderful. One of these days I'll finish it.

William Gibson's books tend to be similarly dense, but quite small in physical size.

By: bluenausea

bluenausea — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:52:57 -0800

When I went to Malawi, I brought all the books I hadn't had the time or motivation to read in the US -- Toqueville, Isiah Berlin, Nietzsche. To my surprise, these books were as heavygoing Malawi as they were in the US, and, as in the US, I managed to find 'better' (easier) things to do. In the end, I left about thirty pounds of world classics in Africa.

Moral of the story is don't bring stuff to Africa that you don't have the discipline to read in the United States and don't waste precious poundage on books that you might not like. Read the first twenty-thirty pages and if you like it, bring it.... if you aren't sure, don't waste the space.

Definitely bring some comfort reading too.

By: happyturtle

happyturtle — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:55:07 -0800

nthing ebook reader or pda, and adding Project Gutenberg as a source of free ebooks. I love my pda for reading in bed (easier to manage than a book when lying down) and also for playing sudoku and solitaire.

By: Forktine

Forktine — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:28:16 -0800

I know you specified "hypothetically," but in practice every Peace Corps office and regional house that I have ever been in has had at least a small bookshelf, and more often a reasonably large library, full of books for you to borrow. Plus, PCVs trade books directly among themselves -- current bestsellers become really hot property, as are copies of current TV shows from the US (this is changing, however, as more places get access to satellite and cable TV and the internet). Depending on where you are stationed, you will be in an office or regional house anywhere from once every six months to every day; you may meet up with other volunteers more frequently. So you will only ever need a couple of months of books, at the most, at any one time, and if you are in an area with lots of other volunteers or other anglophone expats you will be able to exchange books as often as your heart desires.

So I would say bring a couple of your favorites, books you can return to time and again, whether that is the bible or Harry Potter, plus a couple of brand new, just released books that will make nice additions to the lending library. But don't waste valuable luggage space carrying a year's worth of books, and don't convince yourself that if you are normally a genre-fiction fan that you will magically become a Shakespeare scholar just because you are living in Mali. (That said, I did know several people who used the time to read rather hefty tomes that they had never tried before -- "War and Peace" is popular, as are collections of plays and poetry. But that kind of writing has to speak to you for that to work.)

By: parkerjackson

parkerjackson — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:26:12 -0800

Seconding all that bluenausea said-- don't take classics just because you "should" read them. I don't find Shakespeare comforting at all, so that would a be a terrible choice for me and maybe Moby Dick and War & Peace will be that way for you.

N'thing a Norton's Anthology-type book. You'll find some old favorites in there (assuming you liked English class) and a mix of things to read depending on your mood.

My personal collection would be: a few Austen for comfort, an Anthology for new reading, and a modern blockbuster or two for excitement and trading.

By: Galen

Galen — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:33:08 -0800

If you have only one book: Les Miserables (unabridged of course).

Besides being a redeeming story it's also an education, and delves deeply into the philosophy of philanthropy, something worth knowing when undertaking the Peace Corps.

Yeah... definitely Les Mis.

What not to take:
Any Plato, Descartes, Smith, Marx. Theories theories theories. There's no comfort in them.

By: allkindsoftime

allkindsoftime — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:34:19 -0800

After N'thing the L'Engle, Shakespeare, and Bible recommendations, I'd also add a) C.S. Lewis' Narnia series and b) Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

By: Galen

Galen — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:35:39 -0800

Oh! If you have two books: the second could be Deep River by Shusaku Endo.

Such a re-readable book with such depth of human character.
Very good thought provocation for a personal journey, and kindly done.

By: rongorongo

rongorongo — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:58:34 -0800

Having been through some vaguely similar situations I would bring a few hefty tomes that are suitable for swapping amongst other English speakers that you meet. I would also bring some basic drawing tools (travel water colours, pen and ink), a sketchpad and maybe a book on how to draw.

For the particular country or region I was planning to visit I would look in some travel guides to see about any mentions of classic literature relating to the place - and try to get some of that.

Finally - and perhaps most importantly - I would try to pick up some local language guides.

By: uncballzer

uncballzer — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:08:48 -0800

Iliad and Odyssey

By: emd3737

emd3737 — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:49:34 -0800

Practical answer: Just bring a few light paperbacks that you haven't read yet. I read a TON of books when I was in the Peace Corps, but certainly didn't lug them down with me. Forktine's right: Volunteers tend to swap books a lot, and travelers leave them behind. The Peace Corps office should have a decent selection, although the good ones don't linger on the shelf. We had a lot of fun sharing books, although not everyone read them at the same time, it lent to lots of interesting discussion. Among my crowd, Barbara Kingsolver, Conrad McCarthy, and Kurt Vonnegut were very popular, as well as the Harry Potter books. I also recommend Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

By: criticalbill

criticalbill — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:23:02 -0800

My first thought would be - they do have books in Africa. They even have bookshops some places. Maybe if you were going to the moon...

By: i less than three nsima

i less than three nsima — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:43:57 -0800

Don't worry too much about weighing down your luggage with a bunch of books. There is a HUGE book trade culture among Peace Corps volunteers - everyone brings a couple books they like and those books will get passed around until the covers are falling off and the pages have turned the color of your locale's dirt. These "common books" also become a popular discussion topic among PCVs.

I'll second bluenausea and forktine, as well. The classics can be horribly dry and difficult to get through when you're looking to reading as a major form of escape. I read about 80 books in a year when I was doing my service, and I grew to like that comfortably quick clip with which I was moving through books. A slow and arduous "classic" would just make me frustrated that I was getting off my pace. Of course, you could be a completely different kind of reader from me, so YMMV.

Just about every Peace Corps country has several "volunteer meeting places" - be they the country headquarters, a PCV leader house, or a de facto meeting house run by a fellow volunteer. Usually these houses are in cities, central locations, or popular vacation areas, and they inevitably become populated with nearly every sort of book you could want. Don't worry, you'll find plenty of classics in these places, as plenty of people have come before you with the good intentions to read Ulysses or The Complete Shakespeare. Strangely enough, the spines on these books always seem to be the least broken...

Also, remember that you will inevitably end up carting these pounds and pounds of books around the country on crappy African transport. And believe me, the only thing worse than spending umpteen hours on a dirty, stinking African matatu is spending umpteen hours on a dirty, stinking African matatu with a huge bag full of books that you probably won't read.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:54:30 -0800

I don't know if you're trying to set up a plausible desert island scenario or if this is a real concern. My landlady is in the Peace Corps in Africa right now and I mail her books. Peace Corps people also swap books like crazy because other people mail them books. It's not the moon. If it was me, I'd d/l as many ebooks as I could get my hands on to a flash drive or a digital book reader with long battery life. I'd also bring the bible because at some point maybe that way I would finally read it.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:04:38 -0800

This (and a laptop) should be all you need.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:05:14 -0800

And maybe a solar charger for the laptop.

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:09:21 -0800

Don't bring anything you wouldn't be OK ditching when your bag gets heavy.

By: Lazlo Hollyfeld

Lazlo Hollyfeld — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:54:46 -0800

Gravity's Rainbow

By: Orinda

Orinda — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:28:59 -0800

Given the scenario jordanian2 describes, I would try to take something that I could read over and over and that would reliably make me laugh out loud every time.

In my case, that'd be ~~Shakes~~ ~~Chauce~~ Bridget Jones's Diary.

By: newmoistness

newmoistness — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:44:44 -0800

Cormac McCarthy: Suttree and/or Blood Meridian. Both endlessly rereadable.

By: maya

maya — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:02:45 -0800

I just spent a year volunteering in the Marshall Islands. I brought two novels. I *read* 108 books. You should not have a problem.

By: Wolfster

Wolfster — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:02:47 -0800

When I went into the PC I lugged several pounds of books including 'War and Peace', Thoreau's complete anthology, etc.

To be honest, I enjoyed discovering new authors, ranging from Stephen King, Albert Camus, or Ken Follet and rediscovering authors - Ray Bradbury. Similar to Forktine's post, the PC house in the capital had a library/I found the books there.

If I had to do this again, I would only bring a few lightweight paperback books by favorite authors along with a few new ones.

I would have given several friends/family members 20 dollars and told them to mail me used books or magazines every few months. I would have paid money to have something besides that battered Newsweek that PC will send you every month (usually a few months late).

I also would have purchased more books in the capital city- books for kids in French. There were no books in my village - any written material, even just with pictures was something that kids and adults alike enjoyed. Depends on the country you are going to visit, of course.

I've never had so much time in my life to read - I miss it.

Have fun.

By: fidelity

fidelity — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:28:50 -0800

War and Peace is really, really good. You could reread it a lot. You could spend time thinking obsessively thinking about many parts of it. The character relationships, narrative, historicity, philosophical issues, etc. are enough to keep you going for years, if that's your kind of thing. I love that book. It might likely be my desert-island book. I wouldn't take it on a stressful Peace Corps trip, though.

For that, I'd want something less involved and better for stress relief, funny/escapist things. Personally, I would probably go to thrift and used book stores and buy vast quantities of old SF/fantasy/Agatha Christie/western paperbacks (well, I would if I didn't already have bookshelves full) and ask an obliging friend to ship some to me periodically, giving all but the best away when I'd finished reading them.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:10:28 -0800

Finnegans Wake. I wouldn't expect to make any real progress on it in Africa any more than I would in America, but it's an awesome book to have on you.

By: splendid animal

splendid animal — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:05:30 -0800

I haven't yet had time to read it, but in this situation I'd bring Paul Scott's Raj Quartet.