I love to read when I travel, and travel when I read. I always look forward to my annual “book binge” in the summertime, the only actual part of the year I have time to enjoy dozens of books. However, there is nothing like traveling physically and traveling mentally at the same time. It’s extremely satisfying to buy a book at the airport, read it on the plane, and finish it while on a vacation. The book began the journey with you, and it became a part of the journey itself.<\/p>\n
I recently got into “beach reads” while on a recent trip to Florida. These are usually romance novels taking place somewhere dreamy and warm. I usually go for psychological thrillers and murder mysteries, but this past summer I yearned for something a bit <\/em>different. I noticed a contrast in how I viewed and experienced my vacation depending on what book I read… As aforementioned, I’m a big fan of mystery novels, the intensity, and twists make my blood pump and heart race, I love a book I can’t put it down. However, what I discovered in the stillness and satisfaction of a beach read–while on a beach, how perfect–is that I enjoyed every page as it came and every day<\/em> as they passed. I was calm. I was still fully invested in the stories, as I would be in a thriller, but it was different, the “can’t-put-it-downess,” was similar but distinct. And my young traveler’s heart felt different as well.<\/p>\n Once I became invested in this specific author, Elin Hilderbrand, I couldn’t stop the rest of the summer. She writes the most amazing stories, the places and the characters are so detailed it feels like I am witnessing a whole world, a whole life, unfold in front of me. Even when I got home, far away from the beach, I still felt the soft calmness of the quiet ocean rushing up the sand to touch my toes, the kiss of the breeze and the sun on my nose. I was transported completely into the worlds Hilderbrand created. It was a blessing to have her books as an escape this year. COVID has prevented most, if not all, of us from fulfilling our wanderlust. But we can still travel, in a way, I can open a book and be on Nantucket or St. John. I can travel anywhere at any time, a global pandemic can never take that away.<\/p>\n I have never been to St. John, but it feels like I have. I am extremely grateful for the fated moment I picked up my first Elin Hilderbrand novel at an airport book store.\u00a028 Summers <\/em>is the only book that has ever made me cry, I may have started it in Florida and finished it back at home but the whole time my mind was on Nantucket, experiencing a life I couldn’t have experienced otherwise. I love to read when I travel, and the only traveling I can do right now is through books. My heart and soul are in St. John, a place I have never been to, but it’s an island I want to one-day call home solely because I saw an enticing cover at an airport bookstore. Since then, she’s all I’ve been reading. A new book of hers, the final to a trilogy, was recently delivered to my apartment, now I’m headed back to St. John.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"