Books for Traveling:A Questionnaire

Tomorrow, I leave for Scotland. To Stranraer, to be exact, the port town where my sister lives with her daughter and soon-to-be husband. Besides the wedding celebration(s), I'm looking forward to some serious and joyful exploring, including a jaunt to Belfast. It won't be my first time in Scotland -- I visited Elizabeth when she lived in Glasgow a few years back--but it will be my first time in the southern part of the country (not to mention my first time traveling internationally in the company of my parents.)

Such a trip begs that age-old question: What books to pack?

It's not as intuitive a question as it sounds. I've learned that the books to bring on a long trip shouldn't necessarily be the ones you're in the middle of reading for a whole host of reasons. Much more strategy is called for, strategy that can be boiled down to a set of questions to ask yourself about any book that has the potential to make it into your carry-on bag.

1) Is the book borrowed from someone, or is it a library book?
If yes, then it's automatically disqualified from going along with you on your trip.

2) Is the book oversized, or a hardcover?
If yes, then think seriously about the worth of lugging it around with you ... you'll feel every ounce and come to resent the very words on the page. I speak from experience.

3) Is the book sentimental to you -- a childhood favorite, or featuring a special inscription from the person who gave it to you?
Automatic disqualification.

4) Is the book unusually expensive or rare?
Automatic disqualification.

5) Does the book strike an appropriate balance between the type of traveling you're doing and the type of reading it will demand from you?
If you have a lot of separate legs to your traveling, or if you can't concentrate on airplanes, don't bring something that is dense, or especially long; short fiction may be a better choice. If, on the other hand, you expect to have a lot of time to read and get restless with small sips of reading, the big, dense book might be perfect.

This, incidently, is the key argument for bringing multiple books (trumping concerns of added weight and objects to keep track of). You want to be able to meet your many moods. I anticipate wanting to drown into something longer on the long plane ride and in the layover in Amsterdam. At the same time, I've been known to get restless on long plane rides, a mood where the very idea of concentration incites nausea. So I want something that doesn't need intense sustained energy, something that will also be suited for the odd moment in Scotland when I'm waiting for a companion to get ready, or need to steal a half hour of time to be alone (I'm headed for a very crowded house).

6) Is the book a portable size?
Give it an extra point. This may be a tiebreaker between two desirable books.

7) Is the typeface maddening?
It may very well be worth reading a book with a smudgy or tiny or altogether unfortunate font. But don't make it harder on yourself by trying to decipher it while breathing in the pressurized air of a plane.

8) Is the book brittle?
Like, will the pages disintegrate if it bangs around your backpack too long? Leave it behind, lest you have no book to return with you.

9) Do you want to read the book?
Lest we forget, this is an important factor. Note the word "want" to read, as opposed to "feel like you should" read. Traveling isn't a time to feed your "shoulds." Unless you have some kind of deadline.

So what books am I taking with me? I have a shortlist piled on my floor right now. Stay tuned for the final results!

 

Image Credit: Undiscovered Scotland

Comments

[Amy]

Ooh, can't wait to hear what made the final cut! I would just add to Question #1, for the uninitiated, the reason for it is that it's extremely easy to leave a book behind. Leaving one of your own books behind is disappointing, but not as bad as being indebted to someone else! Excellent post, my dear. This is always my dilemma! I like that we have a section on travel writing at the bookstore, divided by location, so you can read something about or taking place in where you're going :)

[Fellowette]

Hey Anna! It's Sarah S. from WAMmy circles. Sorry I didn't get to see you this weekend, but I just wanted to say have a blast in Scotland. My brother lived there twice so I've done the scottish trip my family, twice. It's a great locale for clannish traveling. Maybe try one of Alexander McCall Smith's "Sunday Philosophy Club" or "44 Scotland street" novels--great plane reads and they take place in Edinburgh.

[Anna Clark]

Hi Sarah S.! Thanks for the reading suggestion--you know, I haven't read any of this guy's books, but when I heard Jill Scott was starring in a movie version of one them, I definitely perked up ....