B.K.

We were packing for a vacation once when a friend called. I was glad for her call as it temporarily distracted the children from making fun of me for packing too much. As I spoke to my friend on the phone I directed some of the Offspring to continue packing. They renewed their teasing. At one point the Oldest thought I was telling her to put a stack away when I wanted her to put the stack in the tote with the other stacks.
"More?!" she squealed in disbelief, "You want to put more of this stuff in the tote? Mother, we do not need it all. This is too much."

My friend overhead her, and asked me how long we were to be gone. "Eight days," I said.

She was on my side- "Well, then, of course you need a lot of clothes. There are nine of you after all. Tell her that I agree that naturally you need plenty of changes of clothes."

"Well, no," I explained sheepishly. "We're only packing three changes of clothes each, and those are already packed and in the van. It's the books. I've got a huge plastic tote to fit between the two front seats, and I've filled it with books, some tapes to listen to, and a few things to do. But mostly books."

Silence. Then my friend asked me carefully, "But... don't the friends you are staying with own any books? Aren't they homeschoolers?"

As a matter of fact, they are homeschoolers, and they do have plenty of books. We read some of them while we were there. But I wanted our books, too. Some of them were about the area we were visiting and/or things we'd pass on the way. Some of them were reference materials for a large project I was working on. Some of them are like family members- or closer. Our Second has read Anne of Green Gables ten or eleven times. I believe this is more times than she has spoken to one of her uncles.

My husband looks at my traveling books. "You know," he said, "People call me a work-a-holic, but you are a research-a-holic. You never go anywhere without a book."

I am shocked at the possibility that some people do.
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This post?  It was written in my Before Kindle
days.