What to read next? Isn’t that a common problem?

I’m almost done with Terry Bisson’s and John Kessel’s collections which I’ve enjoyed and learned a lot while reading. Both are masters of short fiction but Kessel edges Bisson for me. Man, Bisson writes with an unmistakeable voice though. Kessel’s stories are usually propped up by one philosophy or another (or I should say Philosophy with a big ‘P’ meaning an actual, reasoned world-view propounded by heavyweight philosophers to distinguish from something like the ‘philosophy’ of Deepak Chopra or Dr. Phil McGraw [not to be confused with the far more appealing Dr. Phil Kaldon from Clarion]) for me to ignore. But I read short fiction on top of novels anyway, so these don’t really count.

I’m trying to choose between Douglas Adams’ “Long, Dark, Tea-Time of the Soul” or “Titus Groan,” book one of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. I’m leaning towards the Adams because it’s a small, battered paperback that’s lightweight and packable as opposed to the dense, three-volume Gormenghast paperback I bought. (You know, I hate reading three novels bound together in one book. It’s a wonder I bought them this way.) Anyway, with the upcoming trips I don’t want to lug anything too heavy.

Speaking of upcoming trips, it’s paddling in the Apostle Islands this weekend. Accuweather’s 15-day forecast says fairly clear, sunny, and windy. I’ll take the first two but that last one’s a little creepy. Lake Superior is Big Water, y’all, and I don’t want to end up blown to Thunder Bay, Canada. Amy and I did the Apostles a few summers ago (photos here) and had a great time. This time we’re going with friends Jenny and Steven and we’re paddling a point-to-point, one-way trip rather than a loop. In fact, here’s where we going, campsites marked with red dots:

I’m really looking forward to it. I get increasingly irritable if I go too long without sleeping outside.