Life is all about the journey, not the destination. Summer vacations are coming and I’m sure you are planning to go destinations quiet and unfamiliar, which would make you forget about the fast life and work tensions that exist back home.
It is a total shift in gear for the mind too that needs readjusting from your disciplined life to a casual and serene few days of escape. It is not easy, that shift, hence it is advisable to read while traveling than listening to music or play cards, which people often do to pass time. One important thing reading does is it refreshes your expectations about the destination. And who knows, a good book prior to the destination might change the way you look at life for the better?
Here’s a list of 10 books that one could read while traveling-
1. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
There are “songs” about the open road, about individuality, about democracy, about friendship, about being gay, about church steeples, about all sorts of great things. In this brilliant book, you don’t need to follow any pattern. Just pick up any one and start reading. It will spur right in the feels. Soothing!!!
2. The Sunlit Night by Rebecca Dinerstein
Dinerstein’s debut novel, it is filled with quirky characters, bizarre occurrences, and picturesque landscapes and is that kind of a book that raises expectations from your journey .Set in the Lofoten, a Norwegian archipelago of six tiny islands the story follows two young lovers from totally different background and crosses path unexpectedly. Frances, who is escaping heartbreak and the hustle and bustle of Manhattan and Yasha, a Russian immigrant raised in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach who is in Norway to bury his father. A special bond is formed that can only click far, far away from home.
3. Go Set a Watchman: A Novel by Harper Lee
The much anticipated sequel to ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Almost twenty years after the first huge hit, the story follows Scout’s return from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. The fact that Watchman was Lee’s first novel, and was the source material used to write Mockingbird, it serves as a light to the readers about Lee’s evolution. The more we read the more realize what the world has just been just robbed off.
4. Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
Bryne has ridden his bike in a lot of cities like Detroit, Berlin, Istanbul, Buenos Aires and many more and he tells you about it. It is just a careening monologue that starts from the Otto Muehl’s bizarre sex-art, about pre-wall fall West Berlin, about British cultural stereotypes, about the reclusive founder of Kodak. There are photographs he’s taken, memories of riding his bike to clubs in New York in the eighties. Without any plot and twist, it is an apt read for something casual yet entertaining.
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
One should always take a classic while travelling and when its Wilde, any book stands out. This book is recommended because somehow I find Wilde has successfully brought out the pleasure of committng sins in this story. Set mostly in the background of the dark alleys of England, Dorian Gray’s beauty and Lord Henry’s rhetoric will mesmerise you and question many aspects of life.
6. The Rocks by Peter Nichols.
Just what could have happened that separates two honeymooners and prevents them from talking to each other for 60 years and that too despite being on the same island. The story has sage, love stories, mystery and the Mediterranean scenic beauty.
7. The Bees by Laline Paull.
A heart-pounding novel and a wild ride about an ancient culture with a strong caste system in which only the queen can breed. Flora 717, a member of the lowest caste, is caught between personal dreams and society’s demands when she dares to challenge the queen’s wishes. Just like the concept the story is intriguing.
8. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
One of the most popular books for journey, it’ll inspire you to buy a one-way ticket for months of adventures and it is a good companion if you already have. Whether it is the food, the cultural experience or the people you meet, traveling affects everyone, as seen in “Eat, Pray, Love.”
9. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
A children’s adventure book for the adults. This book is a little reminder that we all need about the different people that you may meet in your travels. This story essentially showcases that if a little boy can have the strength to travel the universe, you will have the strength to travel the world. A must one for every traveler.
10. The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
If your mode of travel is train, this book is pure gold. This rail-tour through Europe and Asia over four months allows you to soak in all of the possibilities that traveling on the rails can offer. Saying anything more would be spoiling the thrill.
