Tra­velling with books

In his column “Rei­se­fieber” (Travel Nerves), German columnist Wolfgang Bachmann reveals why holiday reading is abso­lutely essential, but can also have its pit­falls.

Of course you need holiday reading! Otherwise you can’t really enjoy your trip. The first thing to do is to get some lite­rature on the region, the land­scape, history, art and archi­tecture, and of course, recom­men­da­tions on typical cuisine.

A phrase book is also indis­pensable, as you don’t want to be wan­dering around like a stupid tourist, you want to talk to people. There are always situa­tions in which you need a few foreign lan­guage phrases, for example if you have food all­ergies. If you are tra­velling through Cam­bodia, you can perhaps ask whether the fish soup is also available without fish (“Est-ce que je peux avoir la bouil­la­baisse sans poisson?”).

If you’re unlucky with the weather, you’ll be glad of some light enter­tainment. Dad has Wal­lander with him, Mum Hera Lind. However, the holiday offers the oppor­tunity to venture into the more extensive must-reads, Musil, Joyce and Franzen. So pack your bags! And employees should not forget that they are being fed by their employer during their days off. This means that it’s also a question of loyalty to further qualify yourself for your company, i.e. to pick up spe­cia­lised lite­rature that you don’t have time for in your day-to-day work. I’m thinking of current uni­versity publi­ca­tions or com­men­taries on the Imple­menting Regu­lation under European law. Now is the time to do this so that you don’t lose touch and are well pre­pared when you return from holiday.

With this basic equipment of com­pulsory reading, you can look forward to the two weeks in Malle or Bad Hersfeld with con­fi­dence. Yes, admit­tedly, tra­velling with books requires a certain amount of logi­stics, which perhaps explains the success of the large SUVs. Of course, you can also take it all with you ele­gantly and space-savingly on a tablet, which also allows you to switch incon­spi­cuously between the various reading mate­rials. And if you’re lucky, you’ll realise on the second day that you’ve for­gotten your charger and power adapter. That’s when your holiday can really begin!

Text: Wolfgang Bachmann

Photo: Dan Dumitriu / Uns­plash

About the author:
Wolfgang Bachmann was editor-in-chief and then publisher of the archi­tecture magazine “Bau­meister”. In addition to his jour­na­listic work, he is widely known for his often tongue-in-cheek columns, e.g. in Bau­meister and for the Süd­deutsche Zeitung. A sel­ection of Wolfgang Bachmann’s “Rei­se­fieber” columns has appeared in HOLIDAYARCHITECTURE under the title “Fremde Zimmer” (“Foreign Rooms”).  If you would like to purchase this still highly amusing travel book, you can find remaining copies (German version only!) here.

Archiv­e­Foreign rooms Untitled

Book edition Fremde Zimmer

Edition URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR has published a sel­ection of Wolfgang Bach­mann’s “Rei­se­fieber” columns under the title Fremde Zimmer. If you would like to purchase this still highly amusing travel book, you can still find remaining copies in our shop.

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