BootsnAll Travel Community

I read quite a bit (3-4 a week,only english) and I'm planning my first non-western european trip. How do people keep themselves in reading material while travelling? Will Amazon deliver to AmEx offices?

try swapping with people you meet along the way, or ask in hostels. I assume you don't want todrag around a ton of books??

Kat

Curiosity never killed anything except perhaps a few hours!

Trading is good fun.remeber doing a short trek a few years back and most on the trip had books.it turned out to be fun as we all wanted to finish our own books to then pass them on to each other and then this created good fun as it got people talking about our views on the books.in the end the trek leader ended up with at least 16 books so he could read them himself and then encourage his next group to do the same.
it helped to break the ice and the next group appeared to enjoy the idea

I like the swapping thing. PLus leaving books behind in hostels, on trains, etc.
The best way to get NEW books, though, is what I did;

gather together your books that you havent read yet, and divide them into small groups. Package them up and do all but write the adress on it. Give money to a good friemnd, and email alon g the way to send out your address and voila! books appear! Of course, sometimes I dont know a good address to give, but I hear you can always receive mail at the consulate of whatever city.

This works exceedingly well with clothing too. I was so very very happy to get some new jean shorts recently... the otehrs were worn to shreds after four months hiking around

and keep in mind too, that as you hit hostels, it's not at all uncommon for them to have a bit of an unofficial library, with an, ahem, 'extended loan system'. If you find a book you like, you often can take it with you, if possible replacing the one you take with one you don't want; once you finish the new book, you can then kind of 'pay it forward' by leaving it at another hostel later down the road.

Another advantage of finding books in hostels and used book stores around the world, is that you'll often end up with books that you might not consider at home. Just try things you've never heard of before and you can be pleasantly surprised.

steve

a good source for books are dive centers. the divemasters often trade with you if you ask them.

Yeah, what Ant said! I did that all over Ireland, it was great. I would find a good book, start reading, and then when I needed to leave I'd just leave one of my other books behind and take the new one. I always asked of course, but it was always okay.

One neat thing that happened - I was staying at Sheila's Hostel in Cork, and I found a book under the bed with "Jason Johnson" written in it. How odd, I'd just met a JJ a month ago in Galway! Sure enough, it was his book, we confirmed it in email. Neat!

The two other ways I got books was: buying them, and sending them home (I like books as souvenirs) and the LIBRARY. In Dingle, I was able to put a five pound note down as a deposit, and check out all the books I wanted.

I was gone two months, and I read about 3-4 books a week.