Call me old fashioned…Books belong on shelves (even when traveling!)

So bookshelves don’t tend to be something you think about when you’re hitting the road.

I never do. That’s said from a person who can’t stand NOT reading a book! If I don’t have my nose in a novel then something is wrong (or I’m insanely busy as I have been for the last few months).

And if anyone has been following this blog then you know what my reading list often consists of – randoms (remember: Eight Travel Books and not one is Eat, Pray, Love?)

But what got me thinking about this blog post today is multi-pronged. One is listening to CBC (the Canadian online radio) about a Canadian (of course) artist who decided to get rid of all of her books! Sacrelege as as far as I’m concerned.

I get why people want to deconstruct their lives, but if there is one thing I will never (ok almost never, which is why I write this blog) are my books!

Which brings me to point two about this post: I have been researching an article about travel items available in Bermuda. I know, I know, not always easy!

So I debated…..do I try and find the Kindle? Do I include the iPad? Everyone seems to be all about reading words on a computer these days. And, really, who am I to complain? I do have a blog by the way.

But the point is books don’t translate. Call me old fashioned! When I read a book I want to be able to scroll through the pages. I want to be able to bend the pages.

And the best part? No matter how tatty or wet they might get….the words will not go. Now tell that to someone who soaks their iPad in the rain!

What has this got to do with travel? I thought you’d never ask. It’s got everything to do with travel because the

more books

Kindle, in particular, was introduced as a compact way to carry around all the reading material you might need on the road.

BAH! Is what I say. The beauty of the road is the loving way that people read their books and then sell them to the tiny second hand shops that spring-up in every backpacker haunt or on the shelves of hostels around the world (yes, from South America to Europe and Asia). In fact many will even give you a book for a book (or two). It’s exchange and commerce!

Even better? Well nothing could be better than having the chance to wander around a book store taking in the titles and deciding what type of adventure you want next. Do you want to go through someone’s life? Perhaps visit your next trip to Thailand?

It’s old school – exchanging books, but it’s more than a chance to recycle books. It’s also a convenient way to expand your own literary adventures.

Do you know how many times I’ve need to lighten my backpack only to be faced with the prospect of titles I have never heard of before? Lots of times. But that’s when you pick-up a book like River of Time written by journalist Jon Swain who lived in Cambodia between 1970 and 1975. The book is his account of these tumultuous years at the beginning of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It was one I could not put down.

Not only do the old-school manners of exchanging books expand your own personal library it also means that you’re not another backpacker with a cool electronic gadget.

Look I’ll be the first to admit that I travel with an iPod, but when I see the amount of gadgets that some people pull out (i.e. a place tracker for photos) and I look at the poverty that surrounds them (i.e. anywhere in South East Asia) a good, old book is better for the soul!

And because you can exchange them you never have to keep them in your backpack. Well I will admit this, as I finish this post….I couldn’t part with The White Tiger! I just couldn’t do it….so I gave it to my dad when I saw him during my trip around the world.

Does this make me sentimental? I don’t think so. I will never be the Canadian artist able to sell all of her books. Even on the road when I was breaking my back and an exchange loomed ahead I found it hard to part with my papers filled with escapes.

Does that make me a bad traveler? Does that make me too sentimental? Who knows. It does mean when I walk into my room and I’m looking for inspiration, now, I have a library of adventures to choose from.

Hell it’s cheaper than jewelry!