devouring books

I have packed a parcel full of books to ship home to myself. I couldn't help but buy so many here! They are much cheaper than in the U.S. Every bookstore seems to cater to exactly what I adore: yoga, Buddhism, travel memoirs, biographies. I've been reading passionately this entire trip, aside from the ten days at the Vipassana course. I started out with HIDING PLACES, a memoir about a man and his sons finding their relatives' hiding places from the Holocaust. Then moved on to ANNA KARENINA, the Tolstoy classic. But I only got halfway through it before it was shelved by HOLY COW, an Australian woman's story of spiritual seeking in India, immediately followed by CAVE IN THE SNOW, the tale of a Western woman turned Buddhist nun who spent 12 years meditating in a Himalayan cave.

After a couple false starts, I've happily moved on to dually reading FREEDOM IN EXILE, an autobiography of H.H. the Dalai Lama which was written in the 90s, and SHANTARAM, a 900-page memoir by a man who escaped from prison in Australia and came to Bombay. I'm only on page 25 or so, but it's very engaging and well-written. Amazingly, he was jailed in India as well, and his book manuscript was destroyed twice by the prison guards. Yet, he persevered and wrote it a third time!

These two books will carry me home, all the way along the 24-hour journey from East to West. It's not that much actual flying time, but unfortunately I have to stop in Newark and Houston before arriving in Austin, where I "belong." Indians don't ask where you're from, they ask, "Which country/city do you belong to?" Mostly, I have said, "The U.S." A lot of people, when they hear Texas, immediately think Bush. Naturally, that is not an association I want. I always tell them he was born in Conneticut.

Happily, most people here know about and love Obama. I have been spoon-feeding U.S./political news to myself over the past few days in preparation for returning to American media mania. I must say, from this viewpoint, McCain looks smug, petty and subtly desperate, while Obama seems graceful and sharp as ever, though perhaps a tad tired from his incessant travels. This weekend, I will know all too well how he feels.