Traveling Tips for Readers

I have now been on holidays for 3 1/2 weeks and I still have not finished a book. There have been too many opportunities for cuddles, sesame street, cosmopolitans and late night chats with family and old friends. But I have been thinking about reading and what a person - well, a person without a one year old grandson that you only get to see once a year in person - needs to know about reading while on the road.

First of all - and you will all say 'of course, - a night time reader needs a portable reading light. Would you believe, and I'm telling you it is true because it happened to me, some people do not put bedside lamps next to the guest bed. What? So, a little lamp bought at Borders is a must. Oh, and make sure that it fits onto your ebook reader too!

Before you buy the local chocolate, the latest magazine that is one third the price of it is at home or go to the best bakery in the northern hemisphere hit the pharmacy and buy three (no less than three but more is better) pairs of reading glasses. You are going to want to read at any moment and I can promise you will not be able to find your glasses. You do not have a kitchen counter where you saw them last or another purse where they might be. They are on the pillow of the guest bed in the room without the bedside lamp and you forgot them. So be smart and have a couple of spare pairs in your bag. And if you are traveling with anyone your age or older - buy them a pair or two too - they will be borrowing yours because they will have misplaced their own as well.

OK. So far so good. If you didn't bring one with you, while you are at the pharmacy buying your extra reading glasses, buy a notebook and a pen. You will need these when you go to the bookshop. The bookshops will call to you and lure you several times while you are in another city, no matter what your resolve about not buying books. And each subsequent city will have new bookshops. All kinds of bookshops. Second hand bookshops. Craft bookshops. Museum bookshops. Cooking bookshops. And you will want to BUY! But, hey, think about your luggage for one minute. Do you really want to lug those four huge Cookbooks around with you for the next 4 weeks? I know you need the latest in the series you are reading but do you really want to carry it home with the 12 other books you found for a couple of dollars less than you would pay for them at www.bookdepository.com? If I find an excellent book that I am sure I cannot live without I write it down in my notebook and I dwell on it for a little while. I usually do want to read it but I am happy to wait till I get home and order it. And I save my back the pain of picking up my suitcase which has a big yellow tag on it that says "Extra Heavy" even without the extra books that I didn't buy.

I always travel with little vials of saline solution. This isn't just for readers but I highly recommend it for travelers. I have often got a hair or something in my eye and there is no one to find it for me. Thus, head on a towel on the bed and several flushes later I am in good reading order. (The old 'there's something in my eye' doesn't work anymore and if there really is something in your eye the cute guys isn't going to be able to find it and you will have red eyes and a runny nose by the time you get it out) - and a trip to the emergency room is going to cost you in a foreign country. Laying on the bed, waiting till you cry enough tears to flush out your eye is boring without a book to read and, well, you can't read with something in your eye, yada, yada.....

You need to take lower expectations for your reading time depending on where and with whom you travel. In my case its all family, more family and friends. I love it and as I said before I would much rather chat and giggle than go to bed early with a book. Not every night, but most, thus - less reading time. I'm just saying so you don't actually pack those 4 600 page non-fiction books you've been saving for your trip. Honestly, one will do - along with the 100 you have downloaded onto your reader or computer.

Last but not least expect new reading experiences. I was reading a book in a coffee shop when a young woman told me she was reading the same book. Her friend's mother gave it to her and it turns out I went to school with her friend's mother. I was looking at books at one of the best bookshops on the planet (Elliott Bay Book Company) and met a man who teaches literature and criticism at the University nearby and he gave me an invaluable list of good reads. These are not unusual or isolated experiences. They happen all the time when you travel with books and amongst book readers.

My opinion - reading is a great thing to do at home or away from home, on a plane, in a coffee shop, in an hotel bed, in an hotel lobby - anywhere. There are preparations to make before and during a trip but never without a book in your bag. My first consideration when planning a trip is which book to take (sometimes I have saved a read for several months before) and the first thing packed is my book. I know some people who look forward to buying a book for their trip at the airport. What a great start. But whatever - take it, buy it, borrow it, beg it - books are an essential part of any holiday but travel wisely.

Nothing

This is the longest I have gone without reading a whole book in years. I am on holidays and usually I read non-stop and lots when I am in the USA! This time I have been playing hiding behind the couch, feeding the tiger, rolling the ball and going to bed when the baby goes to bed with the lights out and no reading. It is an interesting exercise for me.

My usual habit is to go to bed with a book and a cup of herbal tea. I set myself up so if anyone looked in the window I would be like in a movie. The bed nicely made, me propped up on my grandmother's hand embroidered pillow cases, my reading glasses down on my nose and the bedside lamp lit. I like the picture of how I think I look. I read and sip till the tea is gone and then I turn on my side and read until I start to doze. I think this is a fairly common practice and it brings me comfort to know there are thousands of people out there doing exactly what I am doing - and even more that my close friends are going to bed with books as well.

Last night I laid in bed with a baby at my side, lights off, no book, snow falling, thoughts whirling around like a crazy woman. My eyes were so wide awake like they were taped open. All my demons came rushing at me at once and with a vengence. I tried to just look at my beautiful grandson and think lovely thoughts but it was dark and I could only see his shadow and those niggles and wriggles kept sneaking in. I need a book even more than I want a book. Is that bad?

I did finish The Turn of the Screw a couple of nights ago but I have no idea what I read. It was one of the more difficult classics I have tackled. I will have to try it again sometime because I really couldn't decide what it was all about. It was spooky enough to make me want to keep reading but I had a hard time figuring out what the spooky stuff meant. The characters were interesting but I didn't know what they were 'really' saying half the time and the ending confused me completely.

I will put it on my 'to be re-read' list for sometime in the future and I will talk to a couple of friends who I know have read it. But for the rest of the week it's going to be Hop on Pop and Five Little Ducks over and over and I will treasure those books as much as anything I have ever read in my life till now.