Are you stuck like me in the monotony of life ? Doing the same thing day after day.. and hoping to take a travel break soon but it seems like an impossible feat in near future. Some would say I am too young to feel that way but life is no different for a ten year old like me. So I would reiterate for the ten thousandth time that when you are not travelling …. READ, READ, JUST READ !!!!!!!
In my part of the world some do not appreciate it much.. They say it makes you inactive, a couch potato, unsocial and dreamy, but I have only one thing to say to them …
So let’s do this. What do you read when you aren’t travelling and you are unsure of where you should be going next? Here are my favourite stress relievers (the only stress of not travelling 😉 )
My all time favourite book is by Malala Yousafzai ! Not exactly a travel book, but will certainly inspire you to know Pakistan up and close. Huh.. What a girl !! A Pashtun of invincible valour. Malala Yousafzai a Pakistani activist who fought for female education. She was born in the Swat district of northwestern Pakistan, where her father was a school owner. She also runs a fund called Malala fund to break down the barriers preventing more than 130 million girls around the world from going to school. Inspite of the hardships she faced very early in her life she never succumbed to the surroundings and infact came out stronger so much so to be the youngest Nobel prize winner in the category of Peace. Read more about her story, here.
Eloise in Moscow by Kay Thompson is a heartwarming children’s book which talks about Eloise’s adventures in Soviet Union during the Cold War. See the world of Russians in Moscow from the eyes of a six year old. How different from the today’s world of Facebook and Instagram ! I wasn’t really keen on reading this book until I was left with nothing else to keep myself entertained. But Voila ! I was utterly delighted on completing it and since then I can’t stop recommending it to all I meet.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. If you ever own a diary it better be like the one owned by Anne Frank.. said who, of course, one and only ME. The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding in Netherlands for two years with her family during the times of Adolf Hitler (the man I dearly adore.. but that’s something I will touch later). What a constructive thought in destructive times !! Recently at the dinner table my parents told me something about over tourism and how some countries are taking measures to stop it. It made me think about the freedom of movement in today’s world, completely opposite to that in Anne’s time when they had to escape their country for saving their lives. She along with her Jewish family were forced to move out of Germany into Netherlands because they didn’t have the right to live in freedom. Despite all the trouble they had to face Anne was a cheerful teen, so it isn’t really a heavy read.
Lonely Planet ‘Not for Parent’ series. If you are just like me and support only the underdogs, Lonely Planet is not really the website you would surf in leisure. I like digging up the web a little more with my parents than just LP before we visit somewhere. However, this series is surprisingly interesting with intriguing stories and fascinating facts about different places. A delight for eyes and a world of information for brain, go for this series. I especially love bombing people with my general knowledge, it leaves them amazed for a while and encourages them to buy me some more of those books.
Maps. Not exactly a book but did you like picture reading when you were a kid. I loved it and still do. A picture not only speaks a thousand words, it sometimes speak a million. If there is one book that does justice to this, it is only Maps. With a fifty two of them, you have a lot to gaze at and learn. A visual feast, I wont be wrong in saying Maps kindled this travel spirit, curiosity and imagination in me. It was a visual feast though when I got my hands over it, it was almost falling apart at the seams, for being not kept properly or for being overused .. I still wonder ! Believe me you can read through those pictures more than you can read through any set of words.
Is there any other book you would like to add to the list? I would love to read your suggestions please leave them as comments below.
MOIMEHR 