Best Travel Books – My Travel Reading List

Are you about to travel somewhere exciting and you're looking for the next book to take along? You've come to the right place! As a serious bookaholic I could never set foot on a plane or train without having AT LEAST one thick book with me.

Read on to learn why I love reading that much and which are some of my favorite books to read while traveling!

My Must-See Spot When Traveling

Do you know my favorite location in no-matter-which-city I am? It's the bookstore! It's the one place I always feel at home in an instant as if my friends, the books, are welcoming me. Libraries convey the same sense of coziness to me. The more books and the grander the design, the better! So, yep, these are always part of my sightseeing list when traveling.

How Come I Love Reading That Much?

Reading has always been a big part of my life. As a kid, I spent so much time behind books - escaping into fantastic worlds, imagining every single detail of the story, empathizing with some characters, hating others and being sad at heart when I finished the book.

Yep, I was that kid sitting in a corner with a thick book, while my parents either hosted or went to dinner parties. Books were (and still are) my safe space, that little corner, I would always feel welcome. Somewhere I belong. I grew up as an only-child and never really fit in. I was different and people usually don't like that too much, so I became an outsider growing up. But books were always my friends.

Now that I'm grown up (kind of), I still love reading. Nowadays I read less fiction and boy do I miss it. Each summer, I wanna change that, at least during vacay time. I always get into trouble at the airport on my way back home, since I still don't use an e-reader.

I need to touch the pages and love (!) the smell of a brand-new book. But real books are heavy, which is why I try to only buy one when I'm in a foreign place (usually there are like three more in my suitcase that I already brought along :D).

My Favorite Travel Companion: A Thick Paperpack

Are you in vacation mood/mode, ready for some serious chilling at the beach, but still looking for the right book to take with you? If you're a tiny bit like me you'll agree that there isn't a better companion than a thick paperback for any kind of travel destination and especially for the travel itself on a plane or train.

Here's my travel reading list inspiration for you - a few of my favorite reads of all time (you'll notice I like a variety of genres :)) plus the one, I bought during my last Germany trip.

My Ultimate Travel Reading List: 9 of The Best Paperbacks I Ever Read

Paulo Coelho - The Valkyries. I read all Paulo Coelho books and it's hard for me to choose ONE favorite. Most people know "The Alchemist" (which I absolutely adore!), but other books by him are less popular. If you're keen to read another great book by Paulo Coelho, I recommend you try "The Valkyries".

Ken Follett - The Pillars of the Earth. The historic classic, that I've read multiple times. And do you know the best part? After you've finished the 1000+ pages, you can read on 🙂 Mr. Follett wrote two sequels!

Jojo Moyes - Me Before You. This tragic love story has moved millions around the globe and I bet you'll drown in your own tears once you finish it. I'm not a big fan of the sequels though.

Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha. A beautiful story set in Japan of the 1920 about a young girl that gets sold to a geisha house. Also one of the few books, which was made into a great movie.

Frank Herbert - Dune. I read this Sci-Fy classic ages ago. If you're into this genre, a definitive must-read. And yes, lots of pages (and sequels ;))!

Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Oh what a page-turner!!! And the same is true for the two sequels! Those books are full of thrills and suspense, and as a huge fan of good old detective stories, I got addicted to this trilogy in no time. The story is set in Sweden and the writing is a real masterpiece. Tragically, the author died soon after the third book was published.

Paula Hawkins - The Girl on the Train. Another thrilling page-turner with a mysterious story about a woman and her (apparently) train wrecked life. Sadly, the movie was nowhere close to being as good as the book. If you can choose: Read the book, ditch the movie.

Caleb Carr - The Alienist. I haven't read this one yet, but binge watched the Netflix series (which was addictive by the way). It's a detective story set in the 1900 in Manhattan surrounded by real life characters and the book is said to be even better than the TV series.

Hanya Yanagihara - A Little Life. Oh God, that was my favorite book in 2016! This thick novel, published in 2015, is dark and disturbing, despite starting off quite light and easy. Some critics have trashed the author for treating her main character too cruel and brutal throughout the story. Yes, it is true, there's a lot of suffering and pain inside this book.

However, it's also a very beautifully written story about four male friends who couldn't be any more different from each other living in New York. The reader follows their lives from the point of how they became friends at college until they're middle-aged. I sobbed many times while reading 'A Little Life', because each character grew close to me the longer I read. So their joy and misery became mine. NOTE: If you can't handle graphic depictions of physical abuse, this book is not for you.

Margarete Stokowski - Untenrum Frei. That's the book, I bought in Germany this summer. Margarete writes a weekly online column for the German magazine SPIEGEL. Although the topics are serious, she writes in a light and fun-to-read way, and sprinkles some sarcasm on top of her texts - exactly the kind of humor I like. I sat down in the bookstore to read the first chapter of this non-fiction paperback and instantly fell in love with her book.

It's about growing up, it's about being a girl and becoming a woman, it's about gender inequality and feminism and why being a feminist doesn't automatically mean being an angry, aggressive and men-hating person. Each chapter is an essay, that can be read by itself, but why wouldn't I read that book as a whole? Definitely the kind of book, I would have wanted my younger self to read. It seems like it hasn't been translated into other languages yet, though.

Which Book do You Take With You to The Beach?

Are you a book lover as well? If yes, which book did you read multiple times and which one do you plan to read during your travels/vacation? Let me know in the comment section below or shoot me an e-mail 🙂