Travel Reading - July

Because I was travelling, my reading this month was set in certain cities or countries. First up was French Exit for Paris. I got it out of a street library and I've not seen the movie. I lent it to my Mum first and she did not like it. I have to say, I thought it was funny and kooky though very dark.

So I liked it, but am wary it may not be for everyone.

This is a graphic novel I purchased in Nantes. It doesn't seem to be available in English and the pages I looked at in the shop I could read. It's won a number of awards. I started to read it but needed to translate more than was helpful for plan travel or other spots with no internet, so I will get to it soon now that I am home. (English description here)

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This book is set in Ibiza. I had very low expectations but I actually enjoyed it. Less the club life and more the island life, and the villa visitors. It covers climate change and drought and the impact of foreign money and foreigners and of course family relationships. It's an easy read but I did find myself asking questions to taxi drivers based on things in the book. I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

She has a regeneration farm in Ibiza (and this article made me think it's probably where her idea came from for the book). I think it's being turned into a movie but I can't remember where I read that. As an aside, her photo is that of the Liam Neeson's dead wife in Love Actually.

This book I chose for Tokyo, and I enjoyed it. It's a little look at life and how complicated it is, or how uncertain humans are. It's a lovely look at relationships and what we want, or just knowing ourselves. It has a really lovely line about how for some of us, we spend our whole life just trying to work out what we want to do with it, and that it's okay to take a 'little rest in the long journey of your life'. (It's a great paragraph for those HSCers who don't yet know what they want to do).

This I read in the Library in the Earth at Kurkku Fields.

It's a beautiful picture book and was perfect for a library built around the concept of wonder. I relaxed in my little reading nook, in the cool of the library and revelled in the drawings. As it was in Japanese, I don't know the name of this gorgeous surrealist work, so if anyone can help me, please let me know!

While I was in Aomori, I was delighted to find this little book on the Tokyo Toilet Project, as I'd planned to visit all the Toilets in the movie Perfect Days. This project started in 2018 to renovate 17 toilets across Shibuya to make them accessible to everyone regardless of age, gender or disability. It was interesting to learn that Wim Wenders had been approached to make a movie about the project, as I had only learnt of it through the movie.  This is a handy little book for anyone planning their own excursion to all 17, as it has maps, pictures and information on the architects.

I started this book while staying in Shibuya and have about a quarter left to go. I'm enjoying it a lot, Again another book about a woman who doesn't really know what she wants to do in life. It's funny but also a little mean, revolving around the relationship between a young woman who goes to stay with a much older friend of her mother's for awhile. Set in Sasazuka, Shibuya and Shinjuku, it's great to be able to flesh out the scenery and streets in my head.

I only just realised I went to the station that features heavily in the plot, as it is also the location of this toilet.

Do you read books set in certain locations when you travel?

What have been some of the best you've found?

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