After busy workweeks morphed into months, I spent Groundhog Day reading in bed to celebrate the arrival of breathing room in my schedule. What. Absolute. Bliss. Then, three months passed before another opportunity arose. If submerging yourself in books with abandon sounds like a delicious respite, follow these five steps to help transform your reading vacation fantasies into reality. If you’d rather stay home, travel no further than your bed, loveseat, or reading nook. Clock hours in a valley of pillows arranged on the floor. Remember building forts in the living room with blankets, couch cushions, and imagination? Construct a reading cave, seashell, or tunnel for the occasion. If you want fresh air and have access to a yard or porch, follow the sun’s movement outside. If free locations and good weather can lure you away, seek peaceful corners in your local library or an island of quiet at a community park. Don’t sleep on drinks and snacks. While sipping hot tea, red wine, or sparkling water, I often pair my beverage and book with salt: cashews, olives, popcorn. If you appreciate variety, consider preparing a grazing board of assorted “small bites.” Because a reading vacation equals something to party about, create, as Rioter Nikki DeMarco suggests, a themed spread of sweets, like mini confetti cupcakes, chocolate-covered strawberries, and Champagne gummy bears. Whatever your cravings or comfort eats, line your cupboard and tote bags with them. Too often, my phone, with its countless conveniences, hurts my reading productivity. I unlock it to look up a definition or record details, then disappear into an internet black hole. If this sounds familiar, grab a dictionary and notepad instead. If you keep a commonplace book or reading journal, set those aside, too. If you adore audiobooks, add headphones. When staying home, mood-setters help pretty up the ambiance of familiar surroundings. Maybe splurge on a nice candle, incense, or bouquet. If you need brightness, charge reading lights or buy backup batteries and bulbs. Double-check that your softest throw smells fresh for nestling, that your comfiest bookish socks are clean and ready to journey for pages and pages. If you prefer mood reading, ensure you have plenty of titles, in and across the genres you love, on hand. Consider looking into books you can skip around in: anthologies and collections of essays, poems, and short stories. One day, even I, a faithful list-lover, read according to my moods and found glee in the freedom of sampling and deserting selections on a whim. If infusing your R & R with reading intrigues you, peruse I Took An Anti-Burnout Reading Vacation (And You Should Too) and A Complete Guide To Creating Your Own DIY Reading Retreat.
