Bliss ‘n’ joy

I think I’ve found my new obsession: travel books. Not touristy/glitzy kinds, but the good ones. A day or two ago I was thinking to myself about my family history, and I realized that I know next to nothing about Cuba. Pathetically little. (My grandfather was born there, though his father came from Spain. I’m not sure if his mother was a native or if she too immigrated from Spain.)

And so I’m here in the basement of the library, excitedly drooling after finding a few scrumptious-looking books on Cuba (Tattlin’s Cuba Diaries, for example). But more than that, I was awestruck by the wealth of possibilities in travel books. And history books, too. So I’m now getting ready to check out Owen of Wales: The End of the House of Gwynedd along with my Cuba books, feeling like a kid in a candy store. I want to check them all out and read them all, right now, but I’ll have to wait. :) One at a time. I already have 15+ library books on my desk at home. Oh well. These are more interesting at the moment. And I feel like I’ll be a better world citizen for having studied these other countries. Provincialism is so passé.

The best part is that there are so many countries, so many histories. My supply is never going to be depleted. Ever. Mmm. :) A few of the shelves have an index listing the call numbers for the various countries, and when I skimmed over it I got serious goosebumps. Do I know anything about Guiana? Or the Maldives? Or Patagonia? Not yet, but I will. Oh, I will. :)

[...] This post became a twinkle in its father’s eye back in January, when I was walking through the history books on the bottom floor of the library. There were dozens if not hundreds of books for each country, and while one part of me delighted at such a sumptuous feast awaiting me, the more rational part calmly and matter-of-factly said, “Well, yes, but how do you know which ones are good?” [...]