Alessandra is reading…

I was totally feeling a travel memoir to start before going on vacation. Being in the woods always makes me stop more often and look at what’s around me. It makes me think and ponder about life, identity.

My reading during vacation has varied since I started fucking off to the woods.

Before I started tracking my reading in 2020, I only have my memory to base my 2019 camp reading experience off of. I think I took 3 books, kept reading It by Stephen King (one of my favorite books ever), and found .y favorite bookstore that sells only used books.

I really wanted to read The Shining by Stephen King but held off until I could read it together with Doctor Sleep. In 2020, I finally found and purchased The Shining and Doctor Sleep together and completed one of my life goals during that vacation. I also bought 16 other books throughout that vacation – that’s the most amount of books I’ve ever brought home at once.

And then in 2021, I took 2 trips to my favorite bookstore. I had brought a book to vacation and finished that plus another couple books that I got from the bookstore. So of course I had to get more books so I wouldn’t come home with only read books. My bookshelves needed some unread books too. I can’t remember how many books I bought in that trip at the moment, but I do know I read 7 books on that vacation.

• I finished The Stand by Stephen King
• Then Came You by Jeannie Moon
• The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica
• Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer
• Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton
• Butterface by Avery Flynn
• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
• Candide by Voltaire

That was an amazing reading vacation – I read so much, learned so much, and found some favorite new authors. And I also got through Candide, which felt like quite an accomplishment because it was so hard for me to understand and focus on it.

Read on and enjoy those vacations, enjoy those vacation reads if you’re in the mood.