Prepping for Travel

What Books do you travel with? Recommendations?

I'm going to be away from home for four days. I've got a list of sundries like clothes and toiletries and such, but the really important question is: what books do I want to pick up for the time I'll have traveling? Sitting in airports and on the plane, I know from experience, is rarely conducive to being creative. I've tried to write or draw in those situations over and over and I just can't. I think it's the whole situational awareness thing - if I'm creating, I'm not fully cognizant of what's going on around me. And my brain won't stop gibbering at me while I'm surrounded by strangers (which does have weird and notable exceptions). So rather than create, I ingest, preferring non-fiction or research material as it's not as absorbing as fiction. Although I have fiction on tap already...

Maybe it's just an excuse. I have books on my wishlist I've been wanting. Anyone have any recommendations? I'm currently debating these:

Madness and Memory: The Discovery of Prions by Pruisner

The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Sowell

Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down by Gordon

The Death of Common Sense by Howard

A Mind for Numbers by Oakley

I'll probably pick two, at most three, of those. I'm still working on Oligarchs (which really is direct research for the WIP) and I just picked up A Troublesome Inheritance and Psychological Warfare. 

I'll have some time in the evenings in the hotel, not sure how much as I've been warned there will be a lot of extra-curricular reading (yay! LOL ok, ok, I'm not normal). Also, in the hotel room I can write, and will, and am looking forward to some time with no distractions at all, since I've no idea if I'll have internet. So the reading is more for travel down-time. And after I'm back, lunches at work, which is where I've been reading Oligarchs recently.

And I will digress here to note that I love, love, passionately and madly fervently delight in the decadence that is ebooks. Most of the above books are tomes that would sprain a shoulder to lug in my Bag of Holding whilst traveling, not to mention some of the even weightier books I've got floating about already. But with the e-reader capability of my phone, and my tablet, and portable chargers in case I can't find a wall outlet (never something I gamble on) and many planes sporting USB sockets for a small charge these days... I can pop my library in my purse and if I'm not in the mood for the book on hand, switch to another one. I could even, although I probably won't, access the store from my phone via data and buy a new book to have it in my hot little hands a minute later. It's the stuff of science fiction, along with the Tesla in Space... and just as real, albeit slightly less absurd. I love books, in all forms. I love beautiful books on my shelf, but away from home I love that electrons weigh nothing.

Also, if you're more interested in my visual creative side than in my 'stuff the brain until things fall out' side, check out today's Mad Genius post.