Travelling: A Great Place to Read For Fun

Two things I love, especially when I have them at the same time, is a big junk of uninterrupted time and a really good book.  The place where this happens for me in a most wonderous way is on an airplane.  No matter if I'm headed on vacation, to visit relatives, to do an author visit, or to go to a conference, reading on an airplane is, hands-down, one of my favorite things to do.  

I love this reading experience for so many reasons.  I know that for the duration of the flight, there won't be any other distractions.  No emails.  No phone calls.  No dog barking.  No overflowing basket of dirty laundry beckoning me to get something done around the house.  Just me, buckled into my seat, reading glasses on, and my book in hand.  After everyone settles into their seats, luggage stowed, safety instructions explained, I take a deep breath, let out a huge satisfied sigh, and crack the cover.

As perfect as this may sound, there is one thing that may thwart this wonderful time and place to read - a chatty passenger in the seat next to you.  My remedy for this is to exchange pleasantries, in a friendly and brief way, and then, if I sense the person may be eager to spend the flight exchanging life stories, before I crack open my book, I simply put in a pair of earbuds. (No music necessary since their purpose is to signal that if I were travelling on an airplane with a section deemed a silent zone, where passengers are not allowed to talk, I would pay extra money to sit there.)  With my book open and my silent earbuds on, I step into the story that's waiting for me.

Within several minutes and a page or two, I'm literally and figuratively whisked away.  The plane has taken off and I'm headed to wherever it is I'm going, and the book I'm engrossed in pulls me further and further into the story I'm experiencing as I sit reading in my personal "travel bubble" completely detached from the life on the ground that I left behind and the passengers around me, who don't even seem to exist anymore.  Just writing about this makes me find some cheap airfare, grab a good book I've been dying to read, and head to the airport.  It wouldn't even matter where I was going because the trip I would enjoy as I travelled there might be better than the one I was really taking.

Happy Travelling & Reading,

Nancy 

www.nancyjcavanaugh.com