I am in Spring cleaning mode already at home. This means going through each room by room deciding what we really need to keep and what can go. It can be a daunting task but afterwards it is freeing to just have less and feel like you have gained ‘more’. More space. More time. More contentment. More happiness. Yet despite the growing boxes of books marked for the charity shop, there are certain books I just cannot seem to part with yet.
To throw away travel books seems to be an easy task. Is it an outtdated book? Has the trip already been taken? Would it be a trip we would be taking in the next year? Any of my travel books could have been easily given or tossed away many times since in the last few years. Yet these books have made the cut through each spring cleaning task.
I love my travel books. I have only gotten rid of one, from Hawaii, and not before I cut up many of the maps inside for a heart inspired art piece of a few canvases I had to put up on our walls. The books are from past trips and ones yet to be taken. These books are like friends. I should probably explain.
In the decade I lived in the US (from age 17 onwards) I was dealing with issues of being an undiagnosed Third Culture Kid (TCK), culture shock, and home sickness. I would often fill up hours of my day by going to a bookstore, getting lost in the travel section, and then reading about places where I had once called ‘home’ through the eyes of a travel writer. It was the one way I dealt with being landlocked in the US and missing all the places I had left pieces of my heart.
Now that I finally live overseas again I find I still like picking up and rereading these books. Reading the notes I wrote in the books while on travels, in pencil scribbled in the margins. Reading about the places I traveled too after spending many hours organizing every detail of the trip. Still also reading about the places I have spent significant parts of my life, places I long to return ‘home’ to one day.
So maybe I will not be throwing away my travel books this time around, but right now that suits me okay. Probably helps that I have a travel & map themed living room for these paper weights to be displayed.
Q: Do you keep your travel books, how long for, or what do you do with them?
Our nominated girls for next week are: Marcella from What a Wonderful World, Caity from Where the Heart is, Michelle from MishFish13, and Amanda from Rhyme and Ribbons blog. Will be contacting you lovely ladies this week for more information. If you know these girls on social media, send them a shout out of congrats!
Remember to link up this week!
