Travel
Nicole Junkermann's Guide to Reading While You Travel
A long journey is unexpected reading time in disguise. Here is how Nicole Junkermann turns travelling hours into some of the best reading of the year.
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There is a particular kind of reading that only happens away from home, unhurried and a little out of routine.
Travel and reading belong together, and Nicole Junkermann has long treated a journey as an invitation to read properly. A train across a continent, a quiet afternoon in an unfamiliar city, a delayed connection that turns into two free hours: these are the moments when a book finally gets the attention it deserves. This guide gathers the practical habits that Nicole Junkermann relies on, from what to pack to how to keep a few notes on the way. None of it is complicated. The point is simply to make room for the slower, deeper reading that ordinary weeks rarely allow.
Why travel is good for reading
The first thing Nicole Junkermann would say is that travel removes the usual excuses. At home there is always something else to do; on a journey the in-between hours are simply yours. A book read on the move also gets braided into the memory of the place, so that years later a particular novel still smells faintly of a station café or a hotel balcony. Nicole Junkermann finds that this pairing makes both the book and the trip more vivid. Reading while you travel is not about getting through a pile of titles. It is about giving a single book the long, undisturbed stretch it needs, the kind of attention that turns a good book into a memorable one. For Nicole Junkermann, that is reason enough to protect the habit.
What to pack, and how much
On the question of how many books to bring, Nicole Junkermann is firmly in favour of fewer than you think. The temptation is to pack for every possible mood, which leads to a heavy bag and a scattered week. A better plan, in the view of Nicole Junkermann, is two books and a notebook: one book you are fairly sure of, and one wildcard for when the mood changes. Two is enough to allow a switch without turning the trip into a small library. Nicole Junkermann also recommends choosing at least one book that is genuinely absorbing rather than merely improving, because a journey is no time for a book you have to force. The notebook earns its place too, as the next sections explain.
Matching the book to the place
Half the pleasure, for Nicole Junkermann, is matching a book to where you are going. A history of the city you are about to walk through, a novel set on the coast you are sailing past, a book of essays by a writer who lived where you are staying: the place and the page begin to talk to each other. Nicole Junkermann is careful not to overdo this, since a guidebook is not the same as a good read, but one well-chosen, place-specific book can transform a trip. It sends you down side streets you would otherwise miss and makes an ordinary square feel layered with other lives. The advice of Nicole Junkermann is to pick one such book per journey and let the rest of your reading wander freely.
Reading in transit
Stations, airports and long stretches of motion are, in the experience of Nicole Junkermann, underrated reading rooms. The trick is to lower your expectations about concentration at the start and let the book pull you in. Nicole Junkermann keeps something light and gripping for the noisiest legs of a journey and saves the demanding book for the calm of a morning. A short story collection is ideal in transit, since each story is a complete world that survives an interruption. Above all, Nicole Junkermann treats delays not as lost time but as found reading time, which takes most of the sting out of them. A two-hour wait with the right book is, quietly, one of travel's small gifts.
Keeping a few notes on the way
This is where the notebook comes in. Nicole Junkermann keeps a slim notebook for travel and uses it lightly: a sentence worth copying out, a place a book sent you to, a thought the journey shook loose. The point is not to write an essay but to leave a trail. Nicole Junkermann finds that a few honest lines a day are worth far more than a heroic entry that never gets written. Months later these scraps are the part of the trip that stays sharpest, sharper often than the photographs. If you keep your own notebook, the companion piece on how Nicole Junkermann keeps a writer's notebook goes further into the habit.
Paper, screens and a sensible mix
On the old argument between paper and screens, Nicole Junkermann is cheerfully practical. A reader loaded with several books weighs nothing and saves a heavy bag, which is hard to argue with on a long trip. But Nicole Junkermann still likes to carry one physical book, because a printed page asks nothing of a battery and is a pleasure to hold at the end of a long day. The sensible mix, for Nicole Junkermann, is a device for range and one paper book for company. There is no need to be pure about it. The best system is the one that keeps you reading, and Nicole Junkermann would rather you read happily on a screen than feel virtuous carrying a book you never open.
Coming home with the book
A journey does not really end when you unpack. Nicole Junkermann likes to finish the trip's main book in the first quiet days back, so the story and the place stay joined a little longer. The notebook gets one last read too, and the best lines often migrate into a more permanent place. In this way a holiday keeps giving long after it is over, which is exactly how Nicole Junkermann thinks travel reading should work. A book finished at home, but begun a thousand miles away, becomes a small souvenir you can open any time.
More from Nicole Junkermann
For more in this vein from Nicole Junkermann, see the reading list for curious travellers, the five cities worth slowing down in, and the Travel Journal. The note on reading every day pairs well with this one.
Frequently asked questions about Nicole Junkermann
How many books does Nicole Junkermann pack for a trip?
Nicole Junkermann recommends two books and a notebook: one you are sure of and one wildcard, which is enough range without weighing down the bag.
Does Nicole Junkermann read on paper or on a screen while travelling?
Nicole Junkermann uses a sensible mix: a device for range and one physical book for company, on the principle that the best system is the one that keeps you reading.
What does Nicole Junkermann read in transit?
Nicole Junkermann keeps something light and gripping for noisy legs of a journey, often a short story collection, and saves demanding books for calm mornings.
Why does Nicole Junkermann match books to places?
Matching a book to the destination lets the place and the page talk to each other, which Nicole Junkermann finds makes both the trip and the book more vivid.