Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The Republic of Texas

Any reading recommendations for Austin, Texas? I'll cast the net a little wider. How about Texas? A tall order, I know, as it's like asking, any reading recommendations for a place as large as Belgium, Holland, Spain, Portugal and Denmark? I better get to know the place as: 1) almost half my family lives there now; 2) I'll be going there at least twice in the next few months, first for my brother and sister2b's engagement party two weekends from now, the second for their wedding in November; and, 3) because the man who has a 17% chance of becoming our president in 2012 carries a laser guided pistol while jogging in case he sees snakes.

Baleen's only been to Texas once, five hours in Dallas for a dinner with two brokers where she was the only one at the table not wearing cowboy boots and where she was called ma'am for the first time in her life, so I'm excited to show her a true Texan experience. At least a true, modern Texas experience which might include a trip to the first ever Whole Foods, floating down a river with beers in koozies, filling our bellies with barbeque, swimming in Barton Springs, one of Budget Travel's top 10 public pools in the world, and maybe even stopping by Mellow Johnny's, the Austin bike store owned by Lance Armstrong.


But I don't know what to read. Lonesome Dove got my sister through a long Swedish winter, and when my sister and I visited my brother in law school at UT, I pretended I'd read it too, when I'd only seen the movie. When I went to Houston for work, and hung around for the weekend to stay with my brother, Issac's Storm prepared me for the one hour drive to Galveston where we raced rickshaws down the boardwalk in the rain. But there's nothing on the list this time. Any ideas?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hate Texas but loved book Friday Night Lights.

Shady 17