Travel, Take 2
Before we get started—a quick gift guide! Obviously I would love if you were to buy a copy of one of my books, but I’ll also list a good companion book for each of them…
If you liked Clean Air, I would suggest The Need by Helen Phillips.
If you liked Naamah, I would suggest A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet (how I first fell in love with her work!).
If you liked Let’s Not Live on Earth, I would suggest Monster Portraits by Del Samatar and Sofia Samatar.
If you liked Mr. West, I would suggest me and Nina by Monica A. Hand.
If you want to give someone a piece of paper that shows that you’ve pre-ordered them a book, you could spring for In Springtime.
(I also have two new poems up at courtgreen.net if you want to read some of my newest work!)
Now for our regularly scheduled programming:
I’ve never been tremendously enthusiastic about travel.
My family piled into the car for road trips, and I loved those trips, but they were never farther than twelve or so hours from our house. That seemed hugely far when I was little, but now that I’ve met people who love to travel, I see that we kept it pretty local, in terms of the world.
It wasn’t until high school that I visited France, and then in college I visited London (and France again). As much as I loved those international trips, they were expensive and long, and I felt the pressure of making a trip count because you know you might never be back.
And since I was so happy taking smaller trips by car, more reminiscent of how I traveled throughout my childhood, I would always choose a trip like that over a larger expense.
When we decided to move to the London area, I realized how close all of Europe would be. Traveling to another country was suddenly something I could do now, easily. And I could take short trips, knowing that I could return to a place if I liked it.
I thought I might become a person who likes to travel.
Still, for our first few months in England, I stuck to day trips. Why wouldn’t I? I hadn’t seen anything outside of London before. My son and I went to castles and gardens. We went to Brighton and Windsor. We took train rides through the countryside and bus rides through the villages.