Read This, Not That: Travel Edition by Lucy Burdette

LUCY BURDETTE: This is a Traveling with Books question. John and I are going on a big trip in March involving a very long plane flight, long layovers, etc. I used to travel with a stack of books because I absolutely have to have something to read while I’m on the road. Plus obviously, vacation offers more time to read, depending on the type of vacation you’ve chosen. (This vacation will involve a lot of trudging, so we’ll see how much reading gets done.)

In the past, if I was going somewhere for a week-ish, I would pack 6 to 8 books so I wouldn’t run out. John was always horrified at the extra weight. Then e-books became popular, we acquired a Kindle, and I was persuaded to leave the hardcopies behind. Imagine my horror and despair when the brand new Kindle malfunctioned early in the trip so a quarter of each screen was absolutely unreadable. Even though we were in Hungary, we managed to find one bookstore that carried some English language books, but nothing I was dying to read. So I borrowed books from the other travelers on the trip as they finished what they’d brought--dependent on their book choices and reading speed. It was a nightmare! 

Now I try to combine the techniques – pick out a couple of paperbacks that are thick and and not too serious and utterly appealing so as to distract from the worst aspects of traveling, and hope the Kindle app on my iPad continues to function as well.

Questions of the day: Can you recommend a paperback book or two that meet my travel criteria: thick and compelling? (The photo is of some of the books I own that could possibly make the travel team. Do any of those strike your fancy?) How do you handle traveling and reading?