I was recently asked by my friend Peter Fritz to contribute a short sidebar for a magazine article he was writing about travel. Peter asked me what I read when I’m en route from A to B. In 300 words, here’s what I said:
Travel Time: What I Read on a Trip
by Ocean Palmer
Two things are certain when I pack for a trip: I will spend five minutes throwing clothes into a suitcase, and I will spend far more time selecting my perfect reading companions.
I travel a lot – upwards of three million miles now – and long ago decided that travel time and jet lag time are my time. Books allow me to disappear wherever I want to go, surrounded by people and things that interest me.
My DNA is threaded with curiosity, so I love reading and learning about things I find interesting. For example, Julian Rademeyer’s Killing for Profit taught me more than I’d ever hoped to know about the dreadful carnage and blood money of rhino. Nichola Fletcher’s Caviar: A Global History ushered me into the dark closets of another luxury item facing eradication: the prehistoric sturgeon. Misha Glenny’s compelling page-turner McMafia took me to all corners of the globe, explaining in painstaking detail how underworld dirty money economies operate and link together.
Every great read teaches us something; and I love reading about seemingly innocuous places. I seek heartbeats, not tourist attractions, and often travel with a pocket guide of some sort. Its page corners bent, I hunt the one, two, or three places I must experience to enrich my visit.
For example, as magnificent as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab are, you are far more likely to find me at sunrise patrolling the legendary Deira fish market. The characters are there, each with a story waiting to be discovered.
Reading and learning sets us free to understand more and judge less, which lets us collect more memories and friends rather than things. And that, of course, is the wondrous gift of travel.
A good read helps make a trip better. A bad one is a downer. Pick smart and learn something. You’ll never go wrong.
~ Happy travels, OP