What’s that you say? You’re longing to take a trip abroad to see the sights in distant lands, but it isn’t in your budget? Or you’re eager to learn about something new, but there aren’t any TED talks scheduled for your locality, and a dry lecture on the drier Sahara, the only talk that is on offer, isn’t your cup of tea?
Read a book!No, reading a book on a foreign location isn’t quite the same thing as going there and seeing it in person—but if you choose a book with lots of photos, you may actually see more sights than you could if you were actually there—wherever “there” is. You’ll also get a book’s worth of information such as most likely wouldn’t be available to you at the actual site.
Looking for interesting information rather than travel? You know you can find that in a book—in a multiplicity of books. Whatever the subject that interests you, from anthropology to language origins to butterflies to gardening to preserving home-grown vegetables to man’s inhumanity to man, there are books galore on virtually any subject.
Maybe fiction is more your thing than nonfiction…but you’re still looking for an affordable adventure. So, go adventuring in a novel. Take off for other places and possibly other times with the help of fiction. There’s a reason it’s called “escapist.” Whether you’re reading about space travel or time travel, or a western adventure in the pioneer days, or a romance that takes place in Edwardian England, you can ride alongside a cowboy, rocket to Venus, or agonize along with the heroine over how she’s going to escape the clutches of her evil uncle, her guardian. Maybe a more contemporary story suits your tastes better? Read a novel about someone very much like you, and put yourself in her (or his) shoes easily.
Or maybe your affordable adventure will be gastronomic. Maybe you’d like to experience new foods or new cuisines, but you’ve got the proverbial “caviar tastes on a beer budget.” You can read a cookbook and imagine how all those wonderful new foods will taste—and maybe plan to try cooking the most appealing recipes some time soon.
Whether your tastes run to fiction or nonfiction, to travel books or cookbooks, to motivational or inspirational books or to books on the fine art of fly-tying or woodworking or rug-hooking or orchid-growing, there’s a whole world waiting for you in books—an escape and an adventure that you can afford on most any budget.
Start your adventure today!