Travel through Books: Read Around the World 2024!

Yes, I know it's 2025, but it just occurred to me that maybe -- in these cold days of January -- the best way to travel is to park myself safely on the couch under a fleece blanket!

Maybe you feel the same way??

Seems like the perfect time to bring out a reading list I compiled for our Adaptive Travel Summit last September. 

Fiction.  Nonfiction.  Memoir.  Travel guides.  Photography.  

They're just a sprinkling of all the great books out there, but they represent some of my favorite "places to go" through the years!

So grab a blanket.  

Pour some tea.  

Prepare for take-off...

REBECCA'S RECS:  
READ AROUND THE WORLD 2024!

Travel and disability: Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones

Train travel: Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh  (Loved the audiobook!)

Travel meditations & wanderlust: The Vagabond’s Way by Rolf Potts

Outdoor adventure & photography: Stories Behind the Images by Corey Rich

Go local: A Guide to the Great Gardens of the Philadelphia Region by Adam Levine

France and food: Chocolat by Joanne Harris  (It’s also a movie!)

Denmark, winter, and happiness: The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking

Spain (by an 80’s star turned travel writer!): Walking with Sam by Andrew McCarthy 

Nigeria and humor: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Japan and time travel: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi  (It's the first in a series!)  

India, Australia, and search for family: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley  (It’s also a movie called Lion!) 

Where possible, I've linked to Bookshop.org which supports independent booksellers, but most of these are available everywhere, including the public library.  Several make fantastic audiobooks too!

My favorite reading mug from
Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, VT:
"Go Away. I'm Reading."

Do you travel through books?  

What are you reading -- or listening to -- these days?

Got recommendations?  Leave a comment!

I'm working on 2025's list -- and always looking for the next book to carry me away!

Read on,
Rebecca

Mile Marker 13,270

A Garden and A Library

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

This week, I had both!

The Philadelphia Flower Show and the Free Library of Philadelphia -- a perfect combination to kick-off the season.

Here in Philly, the Flower Show curtails the end of winter.  

(Even if disco lives on!)

Stepping from the blustery March sidewalk into the warmth of the Convention Center is a sure sign of greener days to come.

It's a rainbow of scent,

and color,

and inspiration!

But a library -- isn't that for all-seasons?

Technically yes.  But our local branch is only open limited hours these days.  So when I step out of a doctor's appointment which happens to be across the street... 

...I hit the "open-hours' jackpot!

I wander through the library stacks the same way I wandered through the Flower Show just days earlier -- awed by the creativity, the variety, and the pure potential in so many volumes (and so many stems!) all in one place.  

I check out a French documentary called Louvre City.  Anything about France, like reading in general, transports me to a place of hope and renewal!

Winter into spring is always a tough transition. 

I recently began working with a specialized PT to help with digestive issues.  And just today, I started the long process of breaking in a new prosthetic liner.  

I'm trying to walk more.  
Improve my stamina.  
Get back into shape.

It's like pushing up through the frozen soil or -- if you're more of a reader than a gardener -- it's like trying to write a novel, one keystroke at a time.

I finish off the week with a quiche of spring flavors.  Fresh herbs?  A trip to France?

It's like a garden + library in one!

Happy Spring -- and Happy "St. Patti's" Day (as we say in our family)!

May your garden be healthy.
May your library be open and full.

May you have everything you need.

And may you walk safely -- even on the windiest of days!

What place gives you that "back-to-normal" feeling?

At Mile Marker 9,525...

I shop.  

At a bookstore.

In person.

A trip to Inkwood Books is always a treat.  But after 14 months of browsing online, this feels like a luxury vacation!  

Just imagine...

Rigged

Mile Marker 8943:

In early September, my friend Amy sends me this birthday card.

Yes, I think.  I am going to live life as if everything is rigged in my favor. 

It seems like a perfect plan. 

Book Club, the Universe, and Everything...

Mile Marker 7584:

What do space travel and book club have in common?

Well today, snacks.  

19 for 2019

Mile Marker 7000:

It's New Year's Eve and I can't sleep.

Actually, it's 3 A.M.  The fireworks are finished, my friends have gone home, and the streets below my windows are eerily silent.  Yet I'm wide awake, restless, pacing around the apartment with my leg still on.

Why?

10 Books That Made A Difference

Mile Marker 6660:

Do you love books?

Yeah, me too. 

Why I March

Mile 4760:

I almost didn't march today.

Here's why:  It was a busy work week.  On top of that, I rock climbed on Wednesday night, celebrated Deb's birthday on Thursday night, and went to a housewarming party on Friday night.  I expected this weekend to be jam-packed as well.

It was just too much leg time.  I was exhausted.  Just thinking about the Women's March pushed me over the edge.