Read Trip

We're sticking pretty close to home this year - taking one brief sojourn to to LA to reconnect with family and friends. But I've already enjoyed several virtual vacations, thanks to some brilliant writers.

My current favorite traveling companion is Bill Bryson - I've accompanied him on the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods and through Europe in Neither Here Nor There Travels in Europe. His knack for observation and witty exaggeration make all his books utterly delicious reads:

"You turn any street corner in Rome and it looks as if you've just missed a parking competition for blind people....Romans park their cars the way I would park if I had just spilled a beaker of hydrochloric acid on my lap."

Reading vacations have given me the opportunity to dive for poisoned sea snakes and search for Bigfoot with Tim Cahill in A Wolverine is Eating My Leg. I survived a harrowing crash landing, air battles and deadly snakes with Roald Dahl in Going Solo.

A couple other places I'd like to experience this summer: Ireland and Alaska. So I'm looking for reading recommendations - books that'll take me there, allow me to savor the flavor of the place. Bonus points: the books are available at our Redding library.