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!

Top Eight Travel Books (and not one is Eat, Pray, Love)

Nope. Not one! Sorry I know everyone is BIG on Eat, Pray, Love, but I am not a fan. Yes I will be the first and probably only female to say it.

I couldn’t find a book that is so far from the truth of travel if I tried. And god knows I am trying to be closer to the traveling truth with my own. Stay tuned for my book about my navigation of the world last year.

Hint: It is not a pretty bow that is tied by a rich man in Bali.

Anyway, the point of the post today is not to bash a book. No instead it’s to highlight some of my favourites! I love to read and so would any traveler. Do you know how long the bus ride is between Cusco, Peru and Puno, Peru? I didn’t think so.

Well it’s long enough to finish a good book and start a new one! Which is exactly what you could do with my first book:

I raced through The White Tiger and not because it won the Man Booker Award. Nope. Instead I thought this book, published in 2008 as the debut novel by Aravind Adiga, offered a view of India like no other book I have read on the subject. Life is told through the eyes of the main character Balram Halwai. Though clever, Balram is too poor to finish school and takes a job in a tea shop before becoming a driver for the rich in New Delhi. In the city and watching the corruption of his employers Balram realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands! I will leave it at that. You want to visit India without the plane ticket? You want an understanding of the caste system, the conflict between Hindu and Muslim, and the poverty in an interesting narrative? You’ve got your book.

French is Funny!

Ever though the French were funny? No? Well you will after reading A Year in the Merde!

Written by a Brit, Stephen Clarke, it fictionally details another Brit’s (Paul West) attempts to move to Paris for an employer who wants to open tea rooms in the capital. Paul has been recruited by the employer. Ironic, because Paul becomes nothing more than a body in the office.

No one will listen to him when they want to name the British tea rooms: My Tea is Rich. Can you see anyone in Britain drinking in that tea room? Me neither. Want a good laugh at the mannerisms of the French? Enjoy this  book and its sequel: Merde Actually! You will find an amusing trip through France.

New York, New York

You’ve been to New York? Are you sure? Haven’t been to New York? Want another side to this capital city that never sleeps? I ran into this book, Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx while I was browsing a Barnes and Nobles while living in New York (irony, I know, crazy, right!). Anyway, I was looking for something different. I found it in this first book by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.

Based in the post-1980’s in New York it focuses on families struggling to survive on a multigenerational level. But this is no Hollywood tale. It will take you through the Bronx, but also through each generations desire not to be the one before. And failing. Seriously, I’ve never read a better book about New York!

Number Four is just another uplifting book for you. Ever thought being addicted to drugs was funny? No? Ok well neither did James Frey. Or maybe he did. Anyway, though his book: A Million Little Pieces, was caught in a maelstrom of bad press (did he really do this or not?) it’s a good read. I love first-person narratives. I just do. So sue me. But he doesn’t let it drag and it’s not woe is me.

Why do I include this in my books? Even if Oprah has banned him from her couch? Well because it offers you a chance to travel though the eyes of a drug addict. I can happily say I am not one so why not read a book (as semi-fictional as it is) to get an idea?

Saving the World!

From a man who accomplished nothing to a man who tried to accomplish everything we visit Chechnya. I told you this is a random list of books who will make you travel.

The Man who tried to Save the World was written by journalist Scott Anderson and therefore is a succinct, but descriptive and intriguing novel on the life of Fred Cuny. Dubbed the “Master of Disaster”, Fred was one of the best relief workers there was. Unfortunately in 1995 he decided, against all advice, to return to Chechnya.

Him and a small group attempted to reach a rebel fortress that had been bombarded by Russians. They were never seen again. And you won’t be once you start this book! Gripping and a real life drama, it should definitely be part of your backpack!

Somalia

From the drama of a reported war to the war against women that rarely gets reported, From a Crooked Rib is by no means a new book.

Written in 1968 by Nuruddin Farah (a man) he somehow captures the sad, but real, struggles that women in Somalia face (and other parts of Africa). Ebla, the main character, went through the barbaric ritual of female infibulation, then an arranged marriage all before she ran away.

Unfortunately she is then sold into wedlock where she is raped on the first night of the “marriage”. She becomes disillusioned and yet continues to believe that marriage is the source of love and life. It’s a hard novel to read but an enlightening one on the struggles of women outside of my comfortable home.

From women to male piano tuners, I never said my list was organized. Neither is my book shelf which is what I like. I always get to travel to new places! Why stick with one genre? That would be boring.

So now we’re heading to Burma in colonial times. The Piano Tuner is about, of all things, a piano tuner. I know. Shocking. The reason he’s heading to Burma? Well one of the captains in the British Colonial Army has a piano in the hills. He needs it tuned.

Sounds ridiculous, but I bet it could have happened. In any case, it features the conflict between the British and the Burmese who just want their home back. In the most unique of manners – a piano. Filled with descriptions of jungles and lush food, I most definitely will make Burma a next stop!

Visit Barcelona

From Burma to Barcelona. Shadow of the Wind is the s a 2001 novel by Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón and it is amazing! I couldn’t put it down! Not once.

Based in post-civil war Spain, the books centres on a young boy Daniel who is exposed to the beauty of books by his father. In the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library filled to the rafters with old forgotten titles preserved by a secret group of librarians. New initiates (those who know about the library) can pick one book to take with them.

What Daniel finds with his new book, Shadow of the Wind, is a mysterious author and his home city filled with dark corners and unknowns. It will keep you gripped. Just please don’t read Zafon’s second book, The Angel’s Game. It will ruin The Shadow of the Wind!

So there you have it. My reading list if I wanted to travel to somewhere new without ever boarding a plane, sitting in a car or visiting a train. Enjoy!