Taking enough books to be sure you don’t run out is a major consideration when planning a trip. For some reason I have horrible travel karma. In a previous life I must have been an airlines customer service representative. As I write this I am sitting in the airport in Charlotte on my way to Washington D.C. on a non-stop flight from Jacksonville. Yes that’s right, my itinerary that was supposed to get me there in a couple of hours has morphed and changed. It was rather a shock to discover that my trip was going to involve several more hours of waiting around time but I was prepared with plenty to read, having learned the hard way.
When ALA was in Toronto several years ago I left my hotel at 5:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning for the airport. Through a series of unfortunate events, I did not reach home until 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. I had taken enough books with me to more than cover a trip that should have taken no more than fourteen hours including the two hours to check in and go through security. Unfortunately the trip took nearly 68 hours and I ran out of reading material while on a train that was delayed for hours and hours due to a derailment many miles away. It was just after a Harry Potter book had come out and I found it impossible to keep from walking through the observation car and lurking behind people while trying to read over my fellow passengers’ shoulders.
Now, I always try to adequately prepare for a journey and have a few helpful hints to share.
Use technology to its best advantage. An iPod Nano can hold several audio books. They are particularly useful when traveling in a car at night or when standing in long lines at airports while waiting to rebook because your flight has been canceled. A PalmPilot will also store several books. There are many good readers available but I use MobiPocket because it is on my PalmPilot and I don’t have to think about it. Frequently Fictionwise, a good source for ebooks, offers free downloads of Hugo and Nebula award finalists at certain times of the year. And many libraries now lend audiobooks and ebooks as well. By loading several books onto these devices one can get by with only taking a few bound books.
It is always good to put a few books in checked luggage, a book in your purse, and two unread books in carry on. If you’re reading a book that has fewer than 200 pages left it is important to not count that book in the two unread books. Otherwise, heaven forbid, you may run out of books.
Every year or two my husband and I try to go to Mexico for a week. This is one of those travel special circumstances. Fortunately you don’t need many clothes for a week on a Caribbean beach–a few swimsuits, a couple of light dresses, and a couple pairs of sandals. This leaves plenty of room in the luggage for books. For a seven day trip, I recommend fourteen books in checked luggage. Somehow reading a real physical book on the beach is far more satisfying than books stored electronically which work quite well for the flights to and from the vacation.
The bottom line is – don’t be caught without a book.
Ah, “comfort reading” I always like to have a comfort book along. It is so reassuring to know you can just dive into reading an old friend if the travel gets unmanageable. I like Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga for comfort reading. Unfortunately I somehow deleted Diplomatic Immunity from my Palm Pilot so I’m going to have to download it again.
I haven’t read a Norman Maclean in years but now I’m remembering how much I liked his books. Thanks for reminding me.
I am the world’s worst traveler, a complete nervous wreck who examines the worst-case scenario everywhere I go (although I’ve actually had surprisingly good luck traveling; I can promise you if I’d ever been through a 68-hour jaunt I’d never travel again!), so my book packing always involves a certain amount of “comfort reading”: Agatha Christies I’ve read before, entertainment magazines, and other old favorites like JD Salinger and Norman Maclean.