Books That Awaken the Travel Bug In Me

I am all about travel books. 

At Goodreads, where I have currently read and reviewed 4,352 books, one of my favorite genres is travel books.

It's quite fun to stock up on books set in a destination and read my way through a location months and months before I actually embark. That certainly gets my travel bug going.

Look how much fun I had reading through Italy these past few months....

Italy for the Gourmet Traveller

Bella Figura: How to Live, Love, and Eat the Italian Way

Love & Gelato (Fiction)

Italian Days

Cooking with Nonna

Eating Rome

Walking in Italy

In Other Words (Memoir of learning to write in another language)

Leonardo da Vinci

A Wanderer's Guide to Lucca

Brunelleschi's Dome

The Little Prince (in Italian)

I love to read travel narratives set in places I will never visit. My travel bug is fully satisfied by simply reading about some spots in this world; I don't have to actually go there.

Here are some travel narratives set in places I will (probably) never visit....

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette

Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia

The Roads to Sata: A 2,000 Mile Walk Through Japan

The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari

Sahara by Michael Palin

Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places

Beyond the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

To a Mountain in Tibet

The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World...Via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Planes, and Trains

One for the Road: An Outback Adventure

Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Adventure

Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India

An Evening Among Headhunters

Getting Stoned with Savages

Shooting the Boh

Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback

Somewhere in America: Under the Radar with Chicken Warriors, Left-Wing Patriots, Angry Nudists, and Others

Zaatar Days, Henna Nights

Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo

Lois on the Loose: One Woman, One Motorcycle, 20,000 Miles Across the Americas

As you can see, I'm crazy about travel narratives. Are there any you would recommend for me?





Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

I'm Back from Italy and Everything Has Changed

I'M BACK FROM ITALY

I'm still exhausted from that mind-blowingly-long flight home, of course, but I'm starting to process our two week trip to another way of life. Italians still have their center right on family and friends and food and that deep enjoyment of everyday life, and I want to bring that back into my new life.

Here are some truths I want to keep with me:

1. Biting into a big red tomato doesn't have to be a disappointment.

Biting into a big red tomato was a glorious experience in Italy. Every single time. Are we really adding big red tomatoes to our salads and pizzas and hamburgers just for a splash of color? I want more from my tomatoes.

2. Work is important, but it isn't everything.

Americans work an average of 47 hours per week. Workers in Italy work an average of 38.8 hours. You do the math.

3. Savor.

No one came to my table in Italy five seconds after I ate my last bite of food and said, "Through with this plate?"

4. People.

Social media adds a delightful dimension to life (I wouldn't be talking with you right now if not for it) but it can also be a huge distraction. People. I want to focus on people. If it's not connecting me to others, it may need to go.

I'm still thinking about all these things.


EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED

I know about seismic life transitions, but it's been a long time since I actually experienced childbirth or marriage or getting a job. Now I'm head-first into some big ones. I have retired from the most wonderful job in the world, working as a primary school librarian. My husband has also retired. After working for forty-four years in various aspects of civil engineering, he will now be at home with me every day.

It's an opportunity to create our days for ourselves.

It's enormously exciting. It's enormously scary.

What are you reading today?

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.

LIVE FROM BOOK EXPO 2017: A Day at BookCon

For the last two years, I have been privileged to serve as an onsite correspondent for Armchair BookExpo. I've gone to Chicago and New York. I've met oodles and oodles of authors and I've seen oodles and oodles of wonderful new books.

For a variety of reasons, Armchair BookExpo is no more.

And for one (HUGE!) reason, I am not at BookExpo this year....I am in Italy celebrating the the retirement of my husband and me as well as our 40th wedding anniversary.

But there's no reason I can't visit Italy and go to BookExpo at the same time....isn't that the wonder of the written word?

So let’s take a look back at my past visits to BookExpo. Let's go to the 2017 BookExpo, held in New York City:

LIVE FROM BOOK EXPO: A Day at BookCon

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz here for the last time. I spent my final day in NYC at BookExpo's sister event, BookCon.

BookCon was a yee-haw finale to my time here in New York. BookCon is generally a younger crowd than BookExpo, with huge numbers of children and teens and their parents. There aren't many giveaways at BookCon, but they have amazing book sales.

So here is my day at BookCon....

DRESS

People were a bit more formal at BookCon, I noticed.

Made quite the effort.

 Some did well with a bookish theme. Don't you love the skirt and shoes?

Children did well, too.

Babies, even.

Some had a distinctive sense of style.

GAMES

There were lots of interactive games and other activities at BookCon.

 Candlewick had a Where's Waldo scavenger hunt going on. Found you at last, Waldo!

Quarto Publishing had a table where kids could design and mail their own postcards.

Scholastic had a green screen for Clifford and Dog Man.

It's always fun to spin-and-win.

 A couple of publishers encouraged BookCon-ners to write and tweet.

AUTHORS

Mercy alive,were there authors at BookCon!

There was Rainbow Rowell.

The amazing Margaret Atwood.

Big Bang's Mayim Bialik.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid's Jeff Kinney with a fan. Touching.

Captain Underpants author Dav Pilkey with a fan. So touching.

There were huge lines for all of these great authors.

Some of us got plain tuckered-out.

There's so much more I wish I could show you, including Kami Garcia, Laini Taylor, Sarah Dessen, Maggie Stiefvater, and Nicola Yoon.

But I have to get up at 3 am to catch a plane home to Houston. I must tell you that I have loved getting to share BookExpo and BookCon with you. If I were you, I'd start a jar of pennies today to save up for 2018. I hope to see you there!

LIVE FROM BOOK EXPO 2017: A Picnic with Author Jane Green

For the last two years, I have been privileged to serve as an onsite correspondent for Armchair BookExpo. I've gone to Chicago and New York. I've met oodles and oodles of authors and I've seen oodles and oodles of wonderful new books.

For a variety of reasons*, Armchair BookExpo is no more.

So let’s take a look back at last year’s BookExpo:

LIVE FROM BOOK EXPO: A Picnic with Author Jane Green

It's early summer in New York City today. The weather is idyllic, low 70's, sunny. And we have been invited to a picnic. Invited by author Jane Green. 

Yes, that is me, Deb Nance, taking a photo with the beautiful Jane Green.

It was a delicious lunch, with Jane Green lunch sacks, fruits, and a salad in a jar. Plus a tart made by Jane Green herself.

And we each received a copy of Jane's brand-spanking new book, The Sunshine Sisters. Doesn't this look like the perfect summer read?

It was great fun to enjoy the New York sun and chat about books with others.

Happily, it was also an opportunity for us four book bloggers to meet up! From left to right, Sheila DeChantal from Book Journey; Candace Levy at Beth Fish Reads; Stacy Millican from The Novel Life; and Deb Nance at Readerbuzz.

What a wonderful day!

Carrots

Good Reasons to DNF Books

This post is for you, my fellow teachers. Do you realize the harm you do when you force children to read books? Yes, there is the occasional happy moment of a conversion of a nonreader into a passionate classics reader, but that really doesn’t happen all that often, does it?

No, far more common is the conversion of an occasional reader into a book hater, a person who has had such an awful, traumatic experience reading a book that he never wants to read again.

So, my words to the wise are simple: choice. Let children read the books they want to read. Give them support when they take on difficult books. And if a book doesn’t work for a child, let them DNF it. Often. We grownup readers DNF all the time. Every book isn’t good for every person, even the most amazing of books.

Here are some acceptable reasons children (and grownups) can DNF books:

“I couldn’t get into this book.”

“This book is too long.”

“The vocabulary makes this book hard to read.”

“The characters are boring.”

“I don’t like the characters.”

“I’ve read a book like this before.”

“This book is too weird/scary/boring for me.”

“I don’t like to read books about X.”

“I only like to read books about X.”

Basically, any version of “I don’t want to read this book,” is good enough for this librarian.



How about you? What is your philosophy for your students and reading? What are your thoughts about this?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.