If you find lists of "good-to-have equipment" captivating, maybe you should check out that the disaster preparation lists at http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009528.html#009528
You might also like Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," the title story in a short-story collection (well, allegedly all teh shorts are connected somehow, but I've only read* the one) about American soldiers in Viet Nam. At times it's a dry listing of items carried, but it'll drift into something unique to a soldier and start to tell his story, or otherwise divert into a partial narrative about the fighting, and then slip back into an uninterested list.
*By read, I mean "heard read on Selected Shorts."
Hooray for a fellow "Selected Shorts" fan!
Selected Shorts is truly awesome! I've even seen it live, two of the three times it has come to Seattle since I discovered the show. I got to see T.C. Boyle, who did not read, but the host David Barsamyon read Boyle's story about Lassie, a real side-splitter. Also, Keir Dullea (most famously played Dave Bowman in "2001: A Space Odyssey") reading a Sherman Alexie short story. I haven't heard it in a while, but once in a while i'll catch it on the radio and just sit there, mesmerized, even if the reader is halfway through.
Whoops, I meant Isaiah Sheffer, the host. Barsamian (correct spelling) hosts "Alternative Radio" which runs around the same time as Selected Shorts, perhaps on a different night, on my local pubradio station.
I lived in Manhattan from '92 - '93 on the corner of 95th and West Side Ave. Symphony Space is just a block east on 95th and Broadway. It was one of my favorite places!
Ooops. Make that '92 - '98.