"These signs are real. They are also the symptoms of a process."

As my impending departure marches ever nearer, I am becoming more and more obsessed with literature: what do I need to read before I go, what should I take, what's worthwhile and what's to be avoided. Oddly, I'm tempted most by books about violence and death (Journal of the Dead, The Rifles, and The Cannibal have all found their way onto my list), plans gone awry with fatal consequences (Into the Wild), and things generally going wrong. I'm not sure what that means—maybe I'm subconsciously trying to remind myself that things could always be worse—but it's certainly not helping my dreams at night.

In any case, I thought I would give you all a quote from one of my favorite books, which happens to be about violence, war, death, and things just generally going wrong. Somehow, though, it remains upbeat and breathtaking throughout.

"You go from dream to dream inside me. You have passage to my last shabby corner, and there, among the debris, you've found life. I'm no longer sure which of all the words, images, dreams, or ghosts are 'yours' and which are 'mine.' It's past sorting out. We're both being someone new now, someone incredible."

~Thomas Pynchon
Gravity's Rainbow