The Travelling Library, or How to Manage a Vacation

14 years ago

I generally have a wonderful time when on vacation, visiting friends, visiting historic sites, exploring gardens, being stunned by dramatic landscapes. Inevitably traveling involves a lot of time spent waiting, waiting for the train, waiting for the bus, waiting for a plane. Once those wonderful conveyances arrive, much time is spent being on them. And it is impossible to get up and busy yourself in your normal occupations. Clearly books and traveling are made for each other. The drawback is that books are heavy. So what to do?

The other day I headed out to paperback fiction section of a local used books. I bought a dozen battered paperbacks, the older pocket sized, not the newer size that is similar to a hardback. Unless I am very much surprised, none of them will come back home with me. As I travel around and finish them one by one, my suitcase will get lighter and roomier, just the opposite of what I would expect if I ran out of reading material while on my trip and had to refuel.

I expect to have my usual wonderful time. And there will be no frantic searching for a local bookstore when I run out of reading material.

Rosefolly

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Comments (15)

veronicae
14 years ago
We travel by car, so weight is not an issue. We go away for about a week. I take a medium tote bag (LLBean) full of books. How am I supposed to know two days before I leave, when I am packing, what I will want to read 5 or 6 days in the future. And we usually find a small book store somewhere, from which I will buy at least one book as a souvenir of the vacation...or as a gift for someone. Or to read by the fire in the B&B that night, because I have "nothing to read."
leel
14 years ago
I bought a Kindle last year, and that will hold 200 books. More than enough for a week or two, don't you think? But since my husband also likes to use it, I bring along, just in case, a book or two!
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ccrdmrbks
14 years ago
I do the same thing you do, rose. But these are paperbacks that I have acquired through trading sites like PBS or bookmooch. I leave them with a little note in hotel rooms-"Enjoy and Pass on!" I used to do bookcrossing, but never ever had a book "found" so cut out that waste of my time.
woodnymph2_gw
14 years ago
That's why I used to love those really old Penguin Paperback novels I bought in the UK while touring Europe. They are so very lightweight and I have kept some of my originals. Anyone else here remember them?
veer
14 years ago
Mary, Penguin paperbacks are still available over here though they no longer cost just 6d. As a child I used to enjoy their 'Puffin' books, always well-chosen stories by excellent authors.

Here is a link that might be useful: Penguin Books
netla
14 years ago
These days, when I travel without having a car (i.e. abroad and alone), I bring three books: one for the outward trip (which will always be at least three hours on an aeroplane), one for transit and waiting for public transport, and to spare I bring one I have read before and enjoyed, in case the other two disappoint. These will always be paperbacks. Additionally, I will have several audio books on my mp3 player.

In all my travels I have always been able to find books to buy, so I have no need for more. Of course, if I was flying to Australia or taking the ferry to Denmark, I would bring more, because airport and shipboard book stores can not be counted on to stock literature I care to read.

When I'm travelling by private car it's a whole different story...
carolyn_ky
14 years ago
I usually go to a used-book store and stock up for my trips. I had a neat experience this year at Mt. Cook in New Zealand. There isn't much there, so the hotel has nice areas for their guests. One of them was a sitting room with comfy seating with a fireplace and a big built-in bookcase on one side of it. The books were mostly either quite old or quite new popular fiction, with a sign on the case that said if you wanted to take one with you, then leave one of your own in its place.

By that point in the trip, I was running low on books so I did exchange one I had bought for the trip for one of theirs. It was one of the older ones with a mystery-solving heroine of the flapper era. The only bad thing is I forgot to write down the title and author of the one I left, so there goes my record for 2009--one missing anonymous book, read and quite forgotten.
colleenoz
14 years ago
Carolyn- was it a Phryne Fisher book by Kerry Greenwood?

Here is a link that might be useful: Wiki- Phyrne Fisher
carolyn_ky
14 years ago
The book I got from the shelves at Mt. Cook was The Rising Tide by M. J. Farrell (Molly Keane). As I look at the note I wrote, it wasn't a mystery but a family story of a woman and her daughter-in-law who are both very strong willed. It was written in 1937.

The book I can't remember is the one from home that I left in its place.
annpan
14 years ago
After taking the outward Perth, Western Australia trip by train to Adelaide, South Australia with only one book for the 24 hour journey, I bought 6 second-hand paperbacks from a charity shop and a load of munchies for the return trip! I got a couple of favourites to re-read and some unknowns. After being stuck on a plane once with a book that was truly dreadful, I think I would rather have something I know I liked, in case the unknowns are not to my liking. What do you travellers think of that?
ccrdmrbks
14 years ago
I always take a old reliable or tweo for that very reason.
lemonhead101
14 years ago
There is nothing worse than being trapped on a plane or some other conveyance (except car - carsick) without a book. I ran out of books once on a ten-hour plane ride to England and thought I was going to go nuts.

Lesson learned - take more than you need and you'll be ok.
netla
14 years ago
Annpan, I always bring one of my perennial rereads on any journey. It's important to be able to grab it if the other books disappoint. My very favourite book for this is about to fall to pieces and I may have to buy a replacement copy soon.

I forgot to add in my previous post that I always keep a travel journal, and that keeps me busy on trains and planes and in hotel rooms when I don't feel like reading.

Right now I am planning a 10-14 day road trip around Iceland, and I am agonizing over how many books to bring. On the one hand I don't want to be reading when I could be sightseeing or hiking, and on the other I don't want to be stuck in my tent in the rain without anything to read.
twobigdogs
14 years ago
Like many of you, I take old paperbacks and leave them behind. We are leaving for Cape May in a week or so and I will have my bag of paperbacks at the ready. Usually, I find one or two mysteries I HAVE to read at a rental cottage. I feel no qualms taking one or two home with me if I have the same amount to take their places.

If traveling by plane, boat, or train, my system is thus: Pack three in the carry-on, pack ten in the suitcase. What's a few more pounds in the suitcase now that everything has wheels on it, right? And whilst on vacation, I usually look like quite the bum. I take old clothes and toss them out, diddo the old socks. Wear and toss. By doing this, I always have room for the books I buy while I am on vacation. And when I really find a lot of books I want, I just stop at the post office and ship them home. I've done this a couple of times from both England and Australia. But this only works if you are not on a guided tour.

Netla, I feel for you about your Iceland trip. What a wonderful adventure! My own two cents is a book per day to start and then try to figure out the average number of hours you'll be sightseeing per day and then adjust your number of books. If you are anything like me, you'll come up with a reasonable number, then toss in three or four more at the last minute "just in case". HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME!

PAM
netla
14 years ago
Thanks, Pam. It has been ages since I travelled much around Iceland, but now that the economy is in shambles and the currency is in free fall, it has actually become cheaper to travel at home than go abroad.

As to the books, I'll probably toss about 20 or so into a box and pick and choose according to mood and weather.

The Travelling Library, or How to Manage a Vacation

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