On Reading — Vacation

Like many of you, I am enjoying this last weekend of summer (by tradition if not lunar cycles) with a little long-weekend getaway. We are off with my in-laws camping in Lancaster County. Camping isn’t exactly a vacation — it’s fun, it’s a getaway, and it does allow for a lot of family togetherness, but it is work. No one is preparing my meals and hanging up my towels for me on this trip, but even so, I do plan to get some reading done.

I take advantage of vacations, or even weekend trips to visit family, as an opportunity to binge read. At the beginning of the summer my husband and I escaped to a beach paradise with no phones or TVs (and no kids!) to celebrate our fifteenth anniversary, reading was definitely the order of the day. In my mind, there is absolutely nothing more relaxing than reading hundreds of pages a day while lying in a hammock or a chaise lounge with the sun warming my body as the ocean breeze cools me.

Whether it’s a vacation trip of leisure or a slightly more rustic and work-inducing camping trip, I always bring books with me on vacation. How many and which ones is the question, especially if I’m flying and have to pack them or tote them. In the car it’s not as big of a deal, fortunately, so this trip I will be able to bring along the giant Collected Works of Jane Austen (pictured in my “Nightstand” post HERE). Hopefully I’ll finish it so that I will be able to participate on Tuesday in the Classics Bookclub.

Since my husband likes to be the one driving, I expect to get a good bit of reading on the four-hour trip each way this weekend. Hopefully we won’t get caught in holiday traffic which would significantly increase the trip. If so, I’ll be prepared.

I’m bringing plenty of books.

Managing Editor Jennifer Donovan is a contributing editor at 5 Minutes for Mom. She has been blogging at Snapshot for over two years. You’ll almost always find her holding either a book, a fork, a child’s hand, her laptop, or some combination therein.