Reading Life #5: A meditation on the elusive joy of vacation reading

Plus, a crowd-sourced list of my most loved recommended books

I went to Florida for a long weekend with two girlfriends earlier this month. My parents have a condo there that they let us use for the weekend. We came from different states, so I had a solo travel day. I left on Friday morning, getting dropped off at the airport bright and early at 4:45am to catch my 6:05am flight. I knew I had six blissful hours of solo travel time ahead of me, and I had planned accordingly with my reading material (including a new release I was looking forward to that I shared in my Summer Reading Guide. Spoiler alert: I loved it!)

I boarded my flight and settled into my book, happily flipping pages until we touched down at La Guardia. My mind was focused entirely on my book, not wandering off to think, "Oh, I should throw in a load of laundry," or "I wonder what the internet has to say about this book." There was nowhere to go, nothing else demanding my attention. It's a wonderful feeling. For me, it results in a deeper and more rewarding experience than at home. I grabbed a coffee on my layover, boarded the next leg of my flight, and settled in for the three-hour journey from New York to Florida. I finished my book just as we touched down. 

Many bookworms agree that one of the best reading experiences is travel reading (I recognize this is not the case for all readers, especially those who are anxious flyers or travel with children.) All that uninterrupted time with minimal screen distractions. It's a hard environment to come by these days; it feels like the last wild frontier. 

It got me thinking: why does a book just hit better when on a plane? And how can I recreate that experience at home?