Since we're past the Fourth of July and the summer season has officially started, what are your plans for the summer? Vacations, trips? Trips that involve reading? Reading plans? If you're going somewhere, do you do any reading to prepare? Do you read local literature as part of your trip? Have you thought about using the LT Local feature to help plan your book-buying?
My answer:
I don't have many exotic plans for the summer actually. We'll be attending a wedding in Berlin over Labor Day. Then, in September, my father and stepmother are coming over to Europe and we'll be driving to France together. He has bought the DK Eyewitness Travel books to France and Paris, as well as a Streetwise Paris map. So we've been looking through those in our planning. I do like reading local literature, or books set in the country or place I'm visiting, in preparation for my trips. Here are a few of my favorites:
Before I went to Burma, I read The Glass Palace: A Novel by Amitav Ghosh. It is a historical novel set partly in Burma and it gave a good feel for the history, culture and environment of the area. Plus it is a really great story. I also picked up Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess by Inge Sargent.
In preparation for my trip to the Republic of Georgia (a gorgeous country by the way), I read Journalist Wendell Stevenson's Stories I Stole, a collection of her impressions of the country. I so liked her description of the bizzare Stalin museum in his hometown of Gori, that I had to stop by for a visit myself.
A couple of weeks before I travelled to Iceland, I chanced upon Zane Radcliffe's thriller The Killer's Guide to Iceland. The atmosphere is very authentic. The twisty plot and interesting characters elevate what could have been a more run-of-the-mill cross between a travelogue and mystery novel.
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10 comments:
Sounds like a fun summer!
Sounds like you've got some exciting trips planned. I love the DK guides. They're so much fun to read, even if you're not traveling anywhere!
Zane Radcliffe's The Killer's Guide to Iceland is one of those books I want just to be seen reading it in public. The title is killer, pardon the pun, and I love raising eyebrows!
I shall now scurry over and add that to my wishlist... even if I can't get it.
Berlin sounds like fun! :)
Lol not many exotic plans?? Mine include driving an hour to the beach. Have fun on your trips!
I just received an ARC copy of a book entitled One More Year by Sana Krasikov. She was born in the Ukraine and grew up in Georgia. I have not started the book yet. It is a collection of short stories and it indicates some of them are about Georgia.
Have fun on your trips.
LibrarysCat
SK - Yours sounds even more fun!
JS - I love to look at them in the bookstore to help me pick destinations.
KM - It will raise some eyebrows, yes :) My thought exactly!
JK- Well, the friend is getting married to a rich Londoner in a castle so we're expecting to be wined and dined ;)
K - Well, ok, not as exotic as my summers usually are...
LC - Oh I think that was on Shelf Awareness? That was one of the days I decided to cut back - and now I see I am going to regret it...
Wow, your trips sound like a great time. You'll have to pick up The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society when it comes out...glad you're no longer put off by the title. I really do think they should change it, but having read the book, I can't think of a better one.
Well, I rarely get to travel (probably has something to do with having a kid in college and 2 right behind him). Anyway, you know I'm a voracious reader. I always take a book when I travel; in fact, I almost always have one in my car so I can read if I get stopped by a train, get stranded, etc.
Thanks for visiting my blog! I've always wanted to visit Frankfurt. My great grandparents came from there.
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