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Reading and travelling go hand in hand for me.
Before I go on a trip, I read it.
For the most part, I’ll read whatever my local library has to offer. The librarian got my taste and made a lot of suggestions. My favorites are fictional stories of girls or young women who set out on an adventure. They traveled a lot and experienced amazing moments that expanded their minds and made them better people.
I want to go too. At the time, I dreamed of doing it, but over the years I had to settle for reading it.
I still appreciate the patient librarians who helped me find or borrow books they thought I would like. Through their efforts, these women have opened up the world to me. Time and time again, I’ve seen librarians do this for other people. The librarian is the hero of my book.
By sixth grade, I made a mental list of places I wanted to go. A list of place names, some of which I couldn’t spell or pronounce, was like a pipe dream, but I did it anyway. Listing things to do, places to go, people to meet has never gotten me wrong.
Although I didn’t fly for the first time until I was 23, in the years since I’ve found more ways to see more of the world than I ever imagined – I’ve traveled 46 so far states and 47 countries.
I’ve come to believe that the common denominator between travel and reading is that both have the potential to enhance our empathy.
While my family and I traveled extensively in 2019, I ended up canceling all flights I’ve booked since then. However, I am planning a big trip to Istanbul and Athens in November. I’ve never been to Turkey or Greece, I’ve wanted to visit both since some of the books I read when I was younger.
To prepare for this trip, I’m doing my little pre-trip ritual – the location-based novel selection phase. I found the first book I wanted to read about Istanbul, “10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world” by Elif Shafak.
Neil Gaimon said: “Fiction empowers us with empathy: it puts us in the minds of others and gives us the gift of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie, told over and over again Our real thing.”
I refer to various sources to choose my travel novels. There’s even a nifty site called Trip Fiction that offers advice on places to inspire (www.tripfiction.com).
Reading a novel set in a place, especially one written by a local, often gives an extra sense of understanding that is difficult to grasp, pay attention to, or observe. That said, it’s also a reminder of how little we know, how many books there are to read, and how many places to visit.
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