I love to combine two of my favorite things – reading and travel.  While I sometimes read non-fiction books about the place I’ll be visiting before the trip, I like to bring fiction set in the destination when I’m traveling.  I find that it adds to my enjoyment of both the book and the travel.  When the characters are walking in the same places I am, I can feel a greater connection to the story and also get a feel for the culture or history of the place I am visiting.

Personally I prefer contemporary fiction if I can find it, but like historical fiction too.  For example, I have read Nick Hornsby’s About A Boy and Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl in London, Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons in Rome, Terry McMillan’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back in Jamaica, and Kaui Hart Hemmings’ The Descendants in Hawaii.

Memoirs are also a great option; they give you a feel for the customs of a location and what it would be like to live there.  I enjoyed Sarah Turnbull’s Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris and Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon, both about the experience of a foreigner moving to Paris and adapting to their culture.  When visiting Buenos Aires I read about a woman who moved there and took up tango dancing.

One of my favorite travel experiences involved a memoir set in Anguilla.  I read A Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean by Bob and Melinda Blanchard, the story of an American couple who moved to Anguilla and opened a restaurant.  I learned about the Anguilla culture and customs from the story, and then we decided to have dinner at the Blanchard’s restaurant while we were on the island.  We got to meet Bob Blanchard who was at the restaurant that night, had a wonderful meal there, and brought home their cookbook as a souvenir.

Any time I look at the cookbook or try a recipe (the cracked coconut dessert starts with water balloons dipped in chocolate!), I am transported back to the beautiful beaches of Anguilla.

 

And if I had never picked up that memoir, I may not have gone to the restaurant and had the wonderful evening that my family and I all so fondly remember.

Finding books

How do I find books set in specific locations?  Some travel guide books will include book suggestions.  Barnes and Noble’s website allows you to search by geographical location.  Goodreads often has booklists for locations.  I also refer to Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust To Go which gives book recommendations for over 120 destinations.

You don’t have to actually go anywhere to enjoy travel reading.  It’s great for armchair travelers too.

“No Man Is An Island; Every Book Is A World.” ― Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry