[LIVE 90] Portage la Prairie!

Hello, everyone. I have uploaded through "Day 66: The Assiniboine". I am having a bit of writer's block, and so I suppose it is a good thing this blog trails my journey by so much.

I seem to be forming a fairly large book collection in my canoe, which is a rather hazardous place for them. Books either get destroyed by rain, or being stuffed into my dry bags. I do wish now, however, that I had asked for gifts of small books at the beginning of the trip, so I'd have people to share all my reading with. I have been reading books by Blake, Byron (Don Juan (the first use of doubled parentheses in epic poetry?)), Sinclair Lewis, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Tom Stoppard, and John Updike. I also have picked up a book by Marquand, and am considering paying $1 for the privilege of seeing if I can finish Roth's "Zuckerman Bound" before it is eaten by the canoe.

The order of reading books is important. Going from Hemingway to Updike is excruciating. Steinbeck seems a bit lame after Updike, his descriptions, anyway. But I can go back and forth between Hemingway and Steinbeck with no significant pain. It is strange how that works.

I was wondering if you, my readers, wanted to suggest books or authors to look out for. These should be relatively cheap, small, and good. Cheap usually means used, but I have no prejudice against new books -- in fact I would prefer it. If they are cheap. And do suggest a proper order for reading the books.

Or just name any book.

Thank you for reading.