Do your reading habits change when you’re on vacation?
Do you read more? Do you indulge in lighter, fluffier books than you usually read? Do you save up special books so you’ll be able to spend real vacation time with them? Or do you just read the same old stuff, vacation or not?
The BTT questions come from Deb at Booking Through Thursday.
I find it difficult to give a clear answer to this week’s question, because it’s been 11 years since I last had a proper vacation. In fact, it strikes me that it was exactly 11 years ago today that I had a silly accident at work that put an end to normal life in the sense of working full time with proper vacations once in a while. I’m not going into all that here; but one of many side effects was that the whole concept of Time somehow seemed to change as well.
Which reminds me of this clock from Ginny at Let Your Light Shine.
I just love it. (Visit her post to see more funny clocks.)
Where was I? Ah yes, reading habits. And the vacations that I no longer have; because there is no getting away from myself.
However, if I do save certain books to read when I feel I’ve got a bit extra time and possibility to concentrate on reading – then it’s the kind of books that I suspect would benefit from that. Like a good classic or mystery or something of that sort.
And if I am able to stay in that other world without too many interruptions from “this” world – then that is a sort of vacation.
One of my most memorable vacation reading experiences may have been Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of young Werther). This because I was able to read it – or at least part of it – in the geographical vicinity of where it was written. On the banks of the river Lahn in South Germany. I was studying German at the time (back in 1983) and the book I think was on my reading list for the upcoming term. I can still sort of recall the thrill it added to look up from the book and see the same landscape that Goethe described.
So forget about light and fluffy. For a proper vacation, I want my books cooked ‘al dente’.
LOL - I like my books "al dente" too. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for popping by my post earlier.
it has been 6 years since our last vacation, but when we were taking 2 vacations a year and several week end trips to visit my parents, i did not take books or read books. since i read several hours of every day of my life, my vacation was away from reading. we walked the beaches and took naps and ate out and drove for hours looking at places we would never be able to live in. i love reading and a book is my vacation now. i leave home every day and travel the world and live other lives and that is a vacation for me. i know a blogger who takes her camper and goes for a week and takes books with her and sits out in the woods or by the water and reads and reads, that is her vacation.
ReplyDeleteI think I will adopt that idea. find a book that is from the state, country i'm visiting. that sounds exciting.
ReplyDeletehttp://sidnebkclubreviewz.blogsot.com
What a cute post, Monica! Thanks for showing my clock and mentioning me!! It is true that there is a big deal about summer reading material (light) and summer movies (action and light). The really heavy stuff always comes out in winter( as if we're not depressed enough then already!) I guess it's because the marketing people think our brains must be fried from the summer sun or we don't really have time from all the running around. Well, since we never have taken a vacation in 41 years, my reading material is always whatever I want, and not ruled by the seasons. About "The Sorrows..." just yesterday I saw it on a top ten list of some sort, but I can't remember what the list was.
ReplyDeleteI definitely save up a few 'good books' for those times when I can take a break from the real world. And they are always easy-to-read cosy sort of things - cosy crisme, not too serious histories, a Terry Pratcehtt would be ideal but I haven't got the self-control to save one of those - it has to be read as soon as it's published.
ReplyDeleteI love that clock! I don't have a normal work/vacation schedule either so it was tricky for me to answer this too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog :)
~ Claire @ Project to be Read