We take months to plan our holidays, carefully researching the best hotels, the scenic routes and the highest rated restaurants. Nonetheless, we often turn a blind eye to the strongest means of getting our minds ready to go to a different place. Guidebooks are what get the logistics in place, but literature supplies the soul. Travel does not only involve transporting your body across national boundaries but it is also changing your mindset to meet a new reality.
Reading stories before and during your visit alters the manner in which you experience the world. It transforms a plain scenery into a highly woven history, feeling and culture. By reading books when you are on the road, you are not just killing time in a plane, but you are actually constructing a bridge between your personal experience and the life of people you are going to meet.
Furthering into the Historical Situation
The sight of standing in front of the destroyed castle or of a paved square is only two-dimensional without the background to give it context. These monuments are like statues that come to life through historical accounts and biographies. Reading about the things that made a city what it is today; the wars, the revolutions, the artistic renaissance, etc., takes a plain sightseeing tour and turns it into a history walk.
There is the distinction between seeing a generic statue and being aware that it is a memorial to a ruler who sacrificed his life to ensure the freedom that the locals enjoy today. This insight highlights the benefits of reading while traveling, whether that’s novels set in Morocco or biographies on past Indian rulers. It enables you to see the layers of a city that you would never see before and transforms the holiday into a one-of-a-kind experience that will stick with you even after you have gone back to home.
Improving Language and Communication
Although you may not have the intention to learn the local language, reading can help to achieve a high level of language competence to a large degree. Just being exposed to the language by reading translation of local work even when using local idioms and sentence structure is a pre-training of your brain into the rhythm of local speech. To those trying to learn the fundamentals, one of the most incredible methods to learn vocabulary is by reading simple texts or books in dual-language.
Moreover, being a popular reader usually provides you with a point to make. The local people are often pleased when foreigners demonstrate the familiarity with their national poets or modern writers. It shows respect and a real desire to learn their culture which in many cases leads to the openness of warmer and more genuine contact than a simple hello could.
Practicality of the Digital Libraries
Previously, it was impractical to haul around a stash of books to keep you entertained on a long haul flight, as they take up valuable space in your luggage. Technology nowadays has resolved the problem of weight restrictions and travellers can pack thousands of stories in their pockets. A reliable reading app is now an essential travel companion, ensuring you have access to the right story for every leg of your journey.
The digital platforms have opened the access to the stories in a very democratic way and it is now easier than ever to read various genres simultaneously. FictionMe is a prime example of a platform that allows users to access a vast library of engaging stories directly from their mobile devices. You may conclude that all you need after a stressful day at the airports is to relax with a light hearted romance novel that is contemporary. This is because of the capability of alternating between serious historical novels and less serious fiction so that what you read is always aligned with your mood.
Take the Itinerary Tourist Inspiration
Travel literature does not simply equip you as a traveller, but it can even define your travels. Travelogues and memoirs usually point out the unspoken secrets that guide books fail to reveal. The account of a writer about a quiet café in Paris or an obscure hiking trail in Kyoto may make you want to go off the beaten path and come up with your own itinerary.
These tales are a filter, they point to what is really atmospheric and unique about a place. You might not need to cross off the top ten tourist attractions, but instead you may be following the footsteps of your favorite main character or the childhood house of a well-known writer. This travel planning style is so personal and significant, as opposed to other people duplicating their holidays because it involves a simple literary style of planning.
The Importance of Meaningful Travel
Lastly, travel should be aimed at change. We come out of the house to be different like we have been changed by the world that we have been exposed to. Reading helps in this change as the mind is offered the framework in which to work through new experiences. It makes us slower and we have to consider but not merely to consume.
When you are scouting the mad streets of Mumbai or the serene fjords of Norway, whatever you read forms a sound-track to what you see. They add the bustle and excitement that a camera lens is blind to. Whenever you incorporate literature in your travel, then you are sure that you are not only a mere bystander, but a member of the soul of the destination.
Summarising the Journey
Travel is a time, money, and energy investment and it is only logical to gain as much as possible out of it. Even the mere act of reading can serve as a multiplier to whatever you are going through, it provides you with extra empathy, historical and cultural connection that would not have been available otherwise. It transforms a vacation into an adventure and a visitor into a traveller.
So, before you pack your bags, make sure your phone or tablet is loaded with a good reading app. To either inform or to get away, no matter his or her decision on whether to read a historical non-fiction or a fictional story, the words you read will always colour the world you see. Do not simply reserve a flight, reserve an adventure to your brain.
