Trip planning: Books!

Reading, and planning what I will read are important parts of travel plans for me. So it's not surprising that as I think about my trip to MiddleEarth I consider an appropriate library for my suitcase(s). It may be too late to prepare for Oklahoma, but Arkansas - the second destination on this itinerary - is another matter. I know one Arkansan and, as luck would have it, she happens to be the Seattle Times book editor.

Mary Ann Gwinn is not only happy to recommend reading fit for the Arkansas traveler, but she is actually envious that I am going to her home state!

I must digress here. The women in my book group are a well-travelled bunch. India, Africa, Rome, Paris, Tierra del Fuego, for crying in the night. They go every where. So it was with some reluctance that I told them of my plans to visit Oklahoma-Arkansas-Missouri-Kansas this spring. Nobody asked for details about my travel plans. Nobody recalled with enthusiasm their last trip to Kansas... or said, "I know a wonderful spot you simply must see."

So I was gratified when Mary Ann responded to my email: " I'm envious," she wrote ". . . I went to college in Conway(Hendrix College) and participated in many a Toad Suck Daze, mostly by drinking a lot of beer down by the Arkansas River."

We will be staying in Conway, a small town north of Little Rock. And Toad Suck Daze will be in progress when we are there! Wow. This trip is starting to sound like fun.

Mary Ann also kindly educated me about Arkansas literature. She wrote:

"There are lots of worthy Arkansas authors, though a lot of them write about other things than Arkansas. One is Donald Harington, He is considered Arkansas' most prominent literary author; The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks is one that's particularly good. He's an art historian and the books are very strange and wonderful. Charles Portis, who wrote True Grit, is from Arkansas, as is DeeBrown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Stephen Hunter, who is the film critic for the Washington Post, has set a string of thrillers in 20th century Arkansas."

Needless to say, I scooted right over to the Seattle Public Library and checked out two Arkansas books: With by Donald Harington and Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. This last I can't resist. A hillbilly detective who was a Vietnam sharpshooter. It's gotta be different!

Thank you. Thank you, Mary Ann!

You know, I am beginning to suspect there is not an uninteresting place in the whole world.