How Do You Choose Vacation Reading?

plus recommended music by Xiu Xiu & the Mountain Goats, recommended books by Victoria Kielland & Leslie Stein, and a playlist of new music

I’m getting ready to go on vacation in a couple of weeks. Plane tickets are bought. Lodging arranged. Catsitter lined up. I’ll throw a variety of clothes in a suitcase the day before I leave. Those are the easy tasks building up to going away.

Pre-Largehearted Boy I would visit bookstores the week before I left, pick up whatever grabbed my attention, mostly novels and memoirs. Long form narratives hold up well to relaxing while away from home, being emotionally transportive after being physically transported somewhere new.

These days most of my reading is books to feature on the site. Novels, memoirs, story collections, poetry collections, essay collections, as well as the odd graphic novel or cookbook.

I am already putting books away for the trip. Books I have not read yet that are already out (the novels Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns & Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor and Erica Barry’s Wolfish), an old favorite (Philip Roth’s baseball comedy The Great American Novel), and will add frontlist books from my TBR pile to finish the list.

Reading is one of my favorite parts of getting away. Finding new independent bookstores makes me happy. Settling into a cozy, new nook to settle into with an engaging book and a cold beer helps me relax.

How do you choose your vacation reading? Do you read differently when away from home?