A few weeks ago I had to have a contractor shore up one of my kitchen cabinets which was starting to hang at a precipitous angle…. I blamed it on the earthquake last summer, because it was shortly after that I had noticed the slanting had begun. The contractor blamed it on the weight of all those cookbooks I had shelved on top of it. Harrumph.
I had to find a new spot for the cookbooks, and ultimately settled on putting them under the cabinet, on the top of the fridge. In doing so I was forced to pare down a few cookbooks in order to fit them into the new space. My first thought was to find space on one of my bookshelves. This didn’t prove to be promising and I opted to give away a few of the cookbooks.
I bring all this up because as I had stared at my shelves the one category of books that seemed to scream “give me away” were the old worn travel books. But I couldn’t part with them, despite a firm belief I would never use a single one of them again. My most recent trips have all been somewhat short and so 100% researched online and socially. So, when I read in today’s Shelf Awareness that Bowker found “World Travelers Still Print-Bound” I was both a little surprised and comforted. I do like my travel books.
And when I set out to plan the next big adventure I’m sure I’ll be consulting Lonely Planet, DK, National Geographic, Fodors and/or The Rough Guide. But I’m equally sure that when I pack for that adventure the space in my bag formerly reserved for a guidebook, is definitely going to be a way to give the invariably strained zippers on my luggage a sigh of relief. Or I will pack an extra unnecessary pair of shoes. The reference material I take with me will absolutely be digital.
And yet that shelf featuring the 1992 Let’s Go Europe isn’t going anywhere.