Vacation Reading: A Collaboration of a Few Vacations

If you're a bibliophile like me, packing books for vacation can be a daunting task - particularly if you prefer traveling with print books instead of one of those flashy, newfangled e-readers. (I own one, and love it, but I still love a paperback by the pool.) Weight, size of books, number of books, and content are all things to consider when planning your vacation reading, especially if you're a packing hero traveling with a carry-on only. (This is something I will contend with on our upcoming vacation, and I am already stressed out about it.)

I have learned lots about the vacation book selection process since my first trip with my husband in July 2008 (our honeymoon on a Royal Caribbean cruise). I packed The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, which proved a giant (literally) fail on multiple counts. This is one large book, people. It took up quite a bit of space in my bag, and I could have packed two smaller (enjoyable) paperbacks rather than this giant doorstop. It was too big, too heavy, too slow, the content didn't work for me on that particular vacation, and once I finally read the book a couple of years later (gasp!) I didn't enjoy it then either. Lesson learned: start a book before vacation to make sure you're really enjoying it. Lesson learned: don't pack a book that weighs more than all of your shoes, and your spouse's shoes, combined.

During our December 2012 cruise on the Celebrity Summit, I was quarantined in our stateroom for 24 hours as a result of a stomach bug...thank goodness Celebrity provided me with free movies and I had a copy of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn on my e-reader. I cried because I felt so terrible that my illness ruined our day of hiking St. Lucia, but at least I had a thriller to keep me entertained for a few hours. Gone Girl was a great vacation read, but I think the other works of this author might just be too dark for a fun-filled vacation. I just finished Sharp Objects, and immediately wanted to watch Sesame Street or some sort of children's sing-a-long program to counteract the effects of literary darkness.

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For our November 2013 cruise on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, I knew we would be relaxing by the pool quite a bit, so I tossed two library books into my suitcase. I plowed through Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (lots of fun) and then started The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb (too depressing to read while listening to steel drums). Wally Lamb tells good stories, but after a couple of his books on vacation, I know I won't be packing another one in the future.

Reading at sea is so relaxing...

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On our recent visit to an all-inclusive in Riviera Maya, Mexico I packed the first book in the Game of Thrones series, thinking I would become completely engulfed by the fantasy world of George R.R. Martin before beginning the critically-acclaimed HBO television series with my husband. Nope. While the book is incredibly well written, I spent most of that vacation staring at the Caribbean Sea trying to decompress from months of working long hours. This was our first vacation together with substantial time spent relaxing, and I probably would have read much more if I had packed something a tad lighter. I plan on finishing this one at home...eventually. Okay, what I mean is that I plan on watching the tv series soon.

My husband reads only occasionally but had his nose buried in a book for most of our stay at Dreams Riviera Cancun, so consider this is an honest-to-goodness book endorsement. A couple of years ago, I wrote out a list of books for my husband that I thought he would enjoy, so he has been working his way through both fiction and nonfiction slowly but surely.

On this trip, he went completely rogue and packed a book my mom had purchased for him as a Christmas gift - Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. He could not wait to get to the pool to read each morning, and he spent most of our rainy resort day burrowed in the resort lobby, alternating between beers and coffee drinks from the CoCo Cafe. 

We loved our balcony at Dreams Riviera Cancun and used it quite a bit once the sun had passed overhead.