bounty of books
It's getting to that time of year when there comes a need to choose books to travel with. Travel books should not be too big or heavy, but they can't be fluff on the interior or they are used up too quickly. I'm a fast reader and it takes quite a lot of printed words to get me through a month away. I'm not adverse to reading classics on a trip, but they have to be interesting enough that they are relaxing and help distract me from other stresses. Over the past few years I've come to feel a great fondness for give away books: those that are good enough to read, but not so important that they have to come home with me. I love reading a book on a journey, finishing it, and then leaving it for some other lonely English-speaking traveler to find. However, my miserly self demands that pristine books that cost over a certain amount shouldn't be treated in this way.
Imagine my delight, then, when walking into the office this morning I passed not one but three cardboard boxes on the floor in the hallway, all filled with old books free for the taking. Lots of them were not traveling books by any means (who wants to be burdened with a lot of theological philospohy on a trip!) but I found some fiction including Garrison Keillor and Charles Dickens. Free books can be discarded with no regrets whatsoever. There's more: this afternoon I passed a bookstore with racks of $1 books set up on the sidewalk and found another two or three, including one by Daphne DuMaurier which I've already read but long enough ago that it doesn't matter. DuMaurier should make perfect trip reading. Does anyone else remember when you could routinely get used paperbacks for $2-$3? And now used ones are $7 and up!
What I really want is to stay home and do crafty things all summer. But if I must travel, it's good to know I'll have plenty of discardable words to take with me.
I am not sure if you are familiar with bookcrossing or not, but it is leaving a book in a public place for it to be picked up by others. You can register a book online (and thus it can be tracked on its trip around the world) before releasing it into the "wild". It can be a lot of fun to see where they go. More information can be found at www.bookcrossing.com.
Posted by: heather | June 22, 2006 at 09:52 AM