The one thing I love about the act of transportation is the semi-uninterrupted time to turn off my brain and read a good book. Unfortunately, as an adult, vacation is hardly restful anymore. With so much to do before the trip to make sure I’m prepared to leave, the million problems that arise while I’m on the trip that somehow only I can fix and the mountain of things to catch up on when I return seem to ensure that I never get much reading done while I’m actually on vacation. But, for those glorious few hours when I’m traveling, I am in a readers’ paradise. It is for this reason that I won’t try to sell you a list of “the perfect books to read on vacation”, but instead I’ll tell you all about the perfect method for reading based on what mode of transportation you’re using.
Now to be completely honest, if you had told me that I’d be writing this article six months ago, I would have looked at you with a face of confusion and disgust. Up until very recently, I was a physical-book-supremist and did not consider anything else “real reading” (we can unpack this at a later date). I have since realized the huge opportunity for more book time I had been missing out on for years and will now use my revelation to help others see the light as well.
Plane
In my opinion, e-readers have sole dominance over the airplane experience and there’s not much you can say to change my mind. At the risk of sounding like an advertisement, I’ll tell you just how convenient they are for every flight you’ll take for the rest of your life. First, they are incredibly lightweight to help you skillfully balance between your never-ending TBR and the FAA luggage weight regulations; no need to worry about how many Stephen King run on sentences you can fit in your carry on because you can bring them all. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about being that person turning on your reading light during a red eye, the screen brightness is adjustable so you can read comfortably at all times. With the travel delays that seem to be synonymous with airline travel these days, just make sure you’ve packed your charger and downloaded a few extra books ahead of time and you’re good to go!
Train
While I haven’t been able to travel by train very much in recent years, I am hoping to utilize its service soon and think it presents the perfect opportunity for reading a physical book. Passenger trains are superior to cars and airplanes in nearly every way, but with such limited accessibility, Americans are highly underutilizing this excellent mode of transportation. For this article, I’m going to ask you to think of passenger trains as a unique mode of transit somewhere in between a car and airplane, rather than as an alternative to one or the other. One of the ways in which trains fall between planes and cars is the freedom in packing. While you can’t bring your entire bookshelf like you might be able to on a road trip, trains offer significantly more freedom when it comes to cargo than airplanes, and for the most part, if you can carry it, you can bring it. Additionally, different train cars offer different experiences to their travelers, meaning you can always find somewhere light enough to read that won’t bother anyone no matter the time of day. There are also dedicated “quiet cars”, so you don’t have to try and focus on reading while listening to the iPad of the toddler two rows behind you.
Automobile
I get pretty motion sick, so I can’t even watch movies in a car, let alone try to read a book. Luckily, it’s not as bad on larger vessels, but something about trying to focus on anything while in a car makes my stomach turn. This means that years ago I resigned myself to a life of overplayed road trip games and long naps, giving up any attempts at reading or quiet time alone. Recently, however, I discovered the incredible convenience of audiobooks – something I swore I’d never touch. One too many bad experiences “popcorn reading” in English class and narrators that spoke like they were auditioning for the role of Siri’s boyfriend had me convinced I’d rather listen to nails on a chalkboard than a book read aloud. I have since seen the error of my ways and found the beauty that is full cast audiobooks, and now can’t stop recommending them to any and everyone getting in a car. Whether you and your travel group pick out a book to listen to together or you grab your headphones and listen alone, audiobooks are the perfect pair to traveling by car.
Boat
For our purposes, we are going to largely ignore the idea of cruises, because I think they fall into a slightly different category than the one discussed in the rest of this article, and instead focus more on ferries and other water-travel. Although it may seem like a cop-out, I’m going to venture as far to say water travel can easily support physical, electronic and audio books depending on the reader’s personal preference. Boats can get pretty loud but very scenic, so if you’d like to shift all that noise to the background, you can turn on an audiobook and watch the waves in search of whales. If watching the sea would have you end up feeding the fish (like me), it turns out that even just turning to face the same direction the boat is traveling in and looking at paper instead of water calms my stomach enough to focus on my book. Those traveling via boat for an extended period, like a cruise, may find that this is when an e-reader would come in handy to make sure they always have access to a book without the weight of physical copies.
Travel Tips
As always, make sure you’re realistic about your reading when packing. If you haven’t picked up a book since people were debating Team Edward versus Team Jacob, bringing all four hardcover Lord of the Rings novels on your two-hour flight probably isn’t necessary. Conversely, only downloading one contemporary romance novel for your cross-continent train ride may leave you running out of book before you’ve left the station. Finally, reading in public, like transportation allows us the opportunity to do, can make us feel like we have to put on a performance for the people around us, reading certain books to prove a point or make a statement about ourselves. I say, read what you want to read how you want to read it, and to hell with everything else.