Do you like to travel with books? Ever thought that if you packed every book you wanted to take along, your books would need their own suitcase? Welcome, you are not alone my fellow bibliophiles. I love traveling with books and this article provides tips on how to travel with books (yes, actual physical books!) while still packing light.
In the 1700’s, young men and women embarking on a Grand Tour throughout Europe may have traveled with a trunk full of books to aid in their search for enlightenment and culture. Times have changed and traveling light is key to reducing hassles while traveling. Not to mention avoiding pricey airline baggage fees. Books are deadweight in your bag, they aren’t collapsible, foldable, and don’t serve a million purposes.
So what do you do? Friends have suggested Kindles, Nooks, and other e-book readers. I could read books on my IPad, laptop, or the tiny screen of my smartphone. Maybe I could just go a few weeks without reading a book?
But none of these options appeal to me. I have tried downloading and reading books on the devices I already own and don’t enjoy the experience, and I refuse to buy another electronic device to tote around just to read books. I can go about a week without reading a book, but more that is difficult for me. I love to read a good book on long train and plane rides, while taking a relaxing bath, and each evening before going to sleep.
But if you are like me, you love the feel of a good book in your hands and you simply can’t imagine reading all your books on an electronic device. I like being able to manipulate the book and feel the weight of it in my hands. I like that it doesn’t need to be charged and is always ready to be read. It doesn’t have electronic errors and sunlight doesn’t make it impossible to read. If I drop it, it won’t break. If it gets damp from a bath or the beach, it dries out. A book, not matter how enjoyable, is unlikely to be a targeted by a thief, and if stolen, I can easily afford a new one. Seeing the cover of a memorable book can cause perfect strangers to strike up a conversation with you that would have been unlikely if they only saw the back of an e-book reader.
Ok, so enough of my ode to books. Yes, books are great but they still take up too much space. So if you happen to share my love of traveling with actual books, what can you do if you don’t want to lug around a suitcase of books? Below are some tips that we have used ourselves or saw others doing during our travels that can help improve your experience of traveling with books.
Table of Contents:
Tips on Choosing and Packing Books Before You Leave
- Purchase secondhand books to take along on your trip at your local library, book store, or thrift store. We especially like to buy secondhand books that are set in the locations we are going to visit or written by authors from the countries we are going to be visiting. Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast is twice as good if read in Paris (trust me!).
- Take only one or two books, just enough to get you through the first long leg of travel and the first few days. You can then discover new books during your travels.
- Reduce bulk and weight by choosing paperback over hardback books.
- If you are traveling with other people, choose books you can swap with your travel partners.
- Buy city or regional guidebooks instead of full country guides if you only plan to visit a single city or region. For instance if you are only visiting London while in England, you don’t need a guidebook to the whole country.
- Take apart guidebooks and only take the sections you need for your trip. If you have a guidebook to Vietnam and are only visiting the Red River Delta area, just take the relevant sections.
- Sign up for BookCrossing, which is a free website that connects you to a community of fellow book lovers. After joining, you can print out labels and put them in your books. Then after you finish reading the book on your trip, you can leave it and hopefully future readers will find the note and register the book on the site. This way you may be able to track your book as it continues traveling after you are already back home.
- If you pack and write in paper travel journals like we do, look for slim compact ones. Oddly, this is one of the items we spend the most time selecting before our trip as it’s something we use every day of the trip and hope to keep it forever.
Tips for Exchanging, Donating, and Borrowing Books During your Travels
- Once you are finished reading the books you brought along, donate or leave them at the places you stay along the way. Small inns, hostels, and bed and breakfasts normally have a shared bookcase for guest use. Leave your book and borrow a new one.
- Keep an eye out for advertisements for book exchanges and swaps at local hostels, coffee shops, book stores, churches, and libraries.
- Visit local bookstores, outdoor book vendors, and thrift stores to buy new books and donate the ones you’ve already read.
- Many tourist sites, such as castles, churches, and museums, sell wonderful English books in their gift shops. Buy a book about the place you are visiting so the book can double as a souvenir or gift.
- Swap books directly with other people. This is a great way to get to know your fellow travelers. It’s an especially great avenue in countries where it may be difficult to find books in English.
- Staying in one place for a while? Check out the local library. Very few travelers ever think about using the library, but some libraries will grant non-residents a card for temporary check-out privileges for free or a minimal cost. Even if you can’t get borrowing privileges, the library provides a great peaceful place to read and get online. It’s also a great place to meet locals, and librarians can be great sources of local information.
- Some cities have wonderful English libraries, like the American Library in Paris, which can provide a great place to access not only American newspapers and magazines, but also those travel guides and maps you decided to leave at home to save space. Libraries are great places to plan the next leg of your trip.
We have found that searching for places to leave our books and finding new ones can lead to unexpected discoveries of both books and people. It can expose you to new and unexpected books. For instance, I had always wanted to read The Remains of the Day and finally did so when I discovered it on a shelf in Switzerland. In Provence, I read a book written by a local writer I had never heard of before, and Ethan read The Notebook because it was the only book available. He bashfully confessed to enjoying the book but would have never read it otherwise. The search for new books can lead to passionate conversations with strangers (the Frenchman who gave me his opinion on Hemingway), and lead you to venture into places you may have otherwise overlooked (libraries, church basements, and funky secondhand shops). Give it a try!
We hope that these tips are useful to those traveling with books. Have other tips we missed? Wanna share some of your favorite spots for finding new books while traveling? We’d love to hear from you!
Gloria Post author
An incredible article about the joys of travel and books. Thank you for that. A lot to learn from here.
Jessica & Laurence Norah Post author
Thanks Gloria, glad you enjoyed the article!
Kristy Post author
Hi Jessica, Thanks for the great tips! I’ve done book swaps at hostels and whatnot in Europe before but I’m excited to try the Bookcrossing website – it sounds really neat! Have you had any experience travelling in Asia? Are there still English bookstores or hostel book-swapping when English is not as widely spoken?
travelcats Post author
Hi Kristy, You’re very welcome:) It is harder to find English language books in Asia than Europe, but you’ll still find them in many hostels as well as some popular homestays/small hotels. Even if there is no formal book exchange shelf, hostels are also a great place to just ask other travelers if they have any books they’d like to exchange. Book stores are more difficult but you can still find English sections in some book stores in larger cities. Another tip would be to just ask an English speaking host or guide in each city or post on a website or forum for English-speaking expats wherever you are traveling and ask about local book stores or book exchanges as they will know where the best places are to find English books. Good luck and have fun with Bookcrossing – just be sure to have the labels before you set out as it can be difficult to find a printer when traveling. ~ Jessica
Clare Post author
I’ve really enjoyed reading this. Some great tips here for those of us that won’t give up on the physical book for anything. I used book exchanges whenever I’ve been travelling for long periods at a time and it’s really special finding some book you’ve always meant to read. I love the idea of the Bookcrossing website you mention. How wonderful to think that you could potentially track a favourite book from place to place as it finds its way from one book-loving traveller to another!
travelcats Post author
Hi Clare, Glad you liked this article! 3 years later (after writing this post) and I am still traveling with physical books! No e-readers for me although my husband does own a Kindle 🙂 ~ Jessica
Marie-France (a.k.a. BigTravelNut) Post author
Good tips! I follow several of them already. Most places that see a lot of travellers have at least one book exchange shop. And I have left my share of guidebooks behind in hostels, or have gotten a few dollars for them in used bookshops. The only thing that still breaks my heart is having to rip a heavy guidebook to extract only the sections I need!
travelcats Post author
Thanks Marie-France, yes, I also feel sad about ripping apart any book. I actually try to make photocopies if possible rather than tearing one apart but then I feel bad for wasting paper:)
Samantha Angell Post author
I love this post! I am always in a constant battle between books on my kindle, or actual books. I usually end up just buying a couple of cheap, used books and leaving them at the hotel, hoping somebody else picks them up!
travelcats Post author
I think that is a good way to go! A lot of hostels, B&B’s and little hotels have a communal bookshelf so we tend to leave them there.
Megan C. Stroup Post author
I’ve gotten used to traveling with a Kindle for the convenience of it, but these are some great tips! I did find a Jodi Picoult novel (in English!) in a hotel in Switzerland once. That was a treat!
travelcats Post author
I love finding books at places I stay and reading them! Ethan and I tend to actually pack 1-2 books each, leave them as we go and pick up others (usually for free) as we travel.
Darcy Post author
This is a great article! It’s probably my favorite on the blog, so far. I’m a huge fan of bringing waaaaay too many books with me when I travel. I tend to shove my purse (which looks more like a tote bag) full of them and then just deal with my aching shoulders. However, this article has given me a few new ideas on how to handle my book addiction while traveling. Thanks for the tips!
travelcats Post author
Yes, I have the same problem with wanting to take too many books. Hope some of the tips coming in handy during future travels!
Rachel Brandt Fisher Post author
I am the worst when it comes to packing way too many books. I’m always worried I’m not going to have enough to read on the plane ride over or that I’m going to pick something that doesn’t fit the mood I’m in. I guess having over 1000 books in my personal library makes me accustomed to a large selection on any given day.
I love the idea of reading books where they are set. I read Wuthering Heights on a rainy day while we were traveling through the English countryside by train. That was four years ago and it’s still one of my favorite memories of that trip.
travelcats Post author
Reading Wuthering Heights in the English countryside sounds wonderful:) I read The Remains of the Day while in the Swiss Alps, which was great, but probably would have been even better in the English countryside.
Christy Post author
Good ideas and tips here. I also prefer physical books to e-readers, though I seem to be in the minority. In addition to libraries with English books, some foreign cities also have English-language bookstores. These were a godsend when I lived in Japan. We’d ride the train over an hour to pick up English language books!
travelcats Post author
Totally agree Christy. Riding a train 1 hour each way to get books shows some good dedication to reading!
Angela Post author
Great post and so true, I hope books never go out of fashion. I tend to buy books from 2nd hand bookshops when I travel but the problem is if I like them I can’t give them away, hence why I’m usually over weight on my baggage allowance!
travelcats Post author
Yes, I totally agree Angela. I had a really hard time leaving one of my books on this last trip after I finished. I just always tell myself that I can always buy another copy or borrow it from the library.
Mary G. Post author
My favorite thing to do on vacation is READ. There is nothing more peaceful then laying out by a pool or a lake with an awesome book to indulge in. And I would also much rather have an actual book then an electronic device to read off of. I usually pack myself a book or two to hold me over and then find new books to read while Im out on my vacation, that way I dont have to worry about packing a whole suitcase dedicated to my books. Like the article says, you can usually find small hotels or inns that have a book donation program that you can trade the bools you have already read for ones that you have not. This program works well for me. This article also introduced me to bookcrossing.com which is a neat site to join. Very helpful article, thank you.
travelcats Post author
I couldn’t agree more, but I think we are quickly becoming the minority as I see more and people reading on their Nooks and Kindles these days when I travel. More books for us I guess!
Olivia Post author
This is such a great article! I really love books as well and have actually taken a duffel bag full of books on trip before but only within the States. I’ve never thought of some of these things before, thanks for the tips!
travelcats Post author
Thanks Olivia for stopping by and leaving a comment! Yes, I always want to pack lots of books too but they take up so much room. Hope some of these tips were helpful to you.