Books For Armchair Travelers

Hello and welcome to this week’s Top Ten Tuesday! Today we’re talking about books for armchair travelers.

One of the things I love about reading books is that it can take you to a different place and time. Some places I will never visit, some places I have been to before. This week has a little bit of both.

I love traveling but will never be able to see everything. Even places I’ve gotten to visit I’d love to explore more in-depth! But since I don’t have the time or money to go everywhere (and even if I did, I have to do more in life than just travel), I’ll have to go some places, at least, with books. Here’s my list:

1. The Louvre: All the Paintings—Anja Grebe (and others). Before I went to the Louvre last year, I wanted to get a sneak peak in order to not miss the paintings I wanted to see the most. So I checked out this book.

This book is a HUGE tome! And it only has the paintings in the Louvre, and doesn’t even count all the sculptures and historical objects in the museum. Plus it came out six years ago, so the collection has probably grown since then. But it will give you a taste of what you might see if you went there. There aren’t a lot of words in this book, except for descriptions of the paintings, but you’ll get to see most of the paintings in the museum.

My husband said that since I saw all the paintings, now I didn’t have to got to the Louvre ::roll eyes::. There’s a big difference between seeing a two-inch picture in a book and a 14 foot painting in person. And contrary to what he believed, there were many paintings and artifacts I was able to get very close to. The Louvre is much more than just the Mona Lisa!

2. Twilight—Stephenie Meyer. What do sparkly vampires have to do with armchair travel? The books give a fairly good portrayal of Forks, Washington and the beaches there. The first time I read the books, I was impressed by how the beach scenes would take me back to when I was a kid and used to go to the beaches in the Kalaloch area when I was a kid. Last summer, I went to the Twilight Forever museum in Forks (despite at the time never having seen the movies at the time) and then I started rereading the books. I was impressed that she even got the location of the local grocery store correct, and knew it was a Thriftway, and not a different kind of grocery store.

I find it a little odd that Belle stated that it only rained a couple of times a year, when at the time the books take place, there was a summer monsoon and it rained almost every day in the summer—and she’s from Arizona! But it is better than another series (which I won’t name because it was otherwise good) where one of the characters suggested going on a nice little hike up to Wagonwheel lake. I’ve been on that hike twice and it is one of the most difficult I’ve ever been on (the characters going on the hike were not athletes).

3. Today, Tonight, Tomorrow—Rachel Lynn Solomon. If we move a little to the southeast from Forks, we’ll end up in Seattle, where Today, Tonight, Tomorrow takes place. In this book, Rowan and Neil are enemies who end up joining forces in order to win a senior scavenger hunt. As a result, they spend the day going throughout the city seeing different places in the area. As you watch these two fall in love, you get to experience the sights of the city.

4. She’s the Worst—Lauren Spieller. Like Today, Tonight, Tomorrow, the main characters spend the day exploring the sights of their city. In this case, April and Jenn are sisters exploring Los Angeles. April is trying to convince Jenn to stay nearby so she doesn’t have to take over all the responsibilities of running their parents’ store. For the past several years, Jenn has been the one spending all the time at the store, and now April is afraid her parents are going to stick her with the work, which would keep her from playing on the competitive soccer team.

This book is a great way to explore some of the sights in Los Angeles. I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler alert to say their parents are the worst—what parents expect their kids to sacrifice their dreams in order to help run a store that they decided to open? I kind of hate their parents for most of the book. But I do like the sisters and their exploration of the city.

5. How Stella Got her Groove Back—Terry McMillan. I’m sure I read this book after my first trip to Jamaica, although I’ve never spent time at an all-inclusive resort. I did read this book a long time ago, so I don’t remember a great deal about it, but I do know that it did transport me to the island halfway across the world.

6. Wild—Cheryl Strayed. Cheryl’s journey is about the farthest thing from an all-inclusive resort as you can get. This is one of the places on this week’s armchair traveling list I have NOT been to, although I have gone hiking in some of the areas that she did, and I do enjoy hiking. The chances of me ever getting to hike the Pacific Crest Trail are pretty small, so I’ll have to live vicariously through her, and do my little day hikes when I can.

They do have some walking tours in Europe though that sound pretty fun. The kind where you walk all day with a little pack on your back and someone else provides you with your food and at the end of the day you have a place to sleep. I’ll have to settle for one of those someday, because the Pacific Crest Trail is probably beyond my abilities.

7. Into Thin Air—Jon Krakauer. Hiking Mount Everest is a little more challenging than hiking the PCT—and a lot more expensive. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever do this in person. But I did like reading about it. Last year my friends and I went to the top of Pike’s Peak, and although I live at 6,000 feet, even the trip to 14,000 feet had me wishing I had taken a little supplemental oxygen (they sell it in stores around here). I know my friends who were visiting from 1,000 feet really could have used it. 29,000 feet? I like reading about it in magazines, but doubt that’s something I’ll ever do in my lifetime.

8. Alaska—James Michener. On the other side of the world is a place that’s still cold, but a lot safer to get to: Alaska. I read this book a couple years ago before I went on a cruise to this state. After reading this book, I felt like Alaska was a little more familiar to me than it otherwise would have been.

An odd fact about me and Alaska: before I married my husband, he told me that I’d never go to Alaska. I thought that was pretty sad since I thought maybe he had some sort of prophetic powers. So the night before we arrived in Alaska on our cruise, I was a little nervous that I might end up dying. Fortunately, his ability to predict the future on that one was 0.

9. The Float Plan—Trish Doller. I read this book four years ago, and as I was going through my list of read books on Goodreads, I was reminded of how much I loved this book. It’s a book that will take you on the sea. I was in the Navy for a while after I got out of college, and I do like being at sea (although I don’t like the work involved, so I prefer cruise ships now). But the main characters stop at different ports along the way.

I’m still trying to see that green flash at sunset. Haven’t had the chance yet though.

10. 11/22/63—Stephen King. This is another book that highlights a place that I have never been, and will never be able to go to, no matter how hard I try: the 1960s. I have been to Dallas, Texas, but that’s not the armchair traveling part that I’m drawn to in this book. I’m drawn to the time-travel in this story. I know that there were a lot of things wrong with the early 1960s: segregated bathrooms, limited opportunities for ladies, etc., but this book makes me want to visit, at least for a little while. Fortunately, with books, you can.

So that’s this week’s list! Where is your favorite place to escape to in a book?