This week’s theme over at ThatArtsyReaderGirl for top ten Tuesday is books read during a holiday (adding proof gets bonus points!). However, I am not sure which books I read during the holidays and which ones not. You can blame my memory for that as the days just flow into one another! However, I do recall some books that I discovered while on holiday. Books I found on a holiday that delighted me, always, though often after the vacation, when I did get to reading them!

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Books I Found on a Holiday

Like any book lover, I am always spotting books, no matter when and where and how. Somehow, our eyes work like spy cameras meant to find the books and bookstores on every street we walk down on; even if it is a strange town we just landed in, for a holiday!!

Note that I did not always purchase those books right then and there, for whatever reasons. Sometimes, we were just strolling through, and the books caught my eye, so I snapped a pic to remember and read later. Other times, my bags got heavier (already laden with snacks and drinks for our planned hikes or walks!) with the books I simply couldn’t leave there on that store’s bookshelf!

So here is my list of some of the delightful books I found while on vacation in

Solvang

• La Princesa and the Pea (and a few other wonderful versions of the old-as-time tale of The Princess and the Pea). This one is vibrant, to say the least. The delightful rhymes, the frame-worthy artwork, and the so very clever twist on the original make this a must read and must have as well for every library.
• The Tom Swift series of books. On the very same trip and at the same store that I discovered princess and peas versions, I also saw a whole set of Tom Swift books. While I did not end up buying anything that day for myself, I picked a couple of these books from the local used-bookstore (a family favorite for haunting on weekends!)

San Luis Obispo

The next two books are right next to each other, and they both caught my eye. We ended up buying the Joan Didion book instead since both my teens were in a Didion phase during that trip

• Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread (tbh, this one had already been on my TBR for way too long) but it still caught my attention here since I saw the physical copy for the first time. And it is temptingly beautiful!!
• Edward Hirsch‘s 100 Poems to Break Your Heart

The Coastal Starlight

A book I picked up from the reading room of the Coastal Starlight on a long ago trip to Seattle from the Bay Area, and got so engrossed reading it that it I ended up with it! As for the trip and the Coast Starlight, it is a must-experience journey, and if you can take it, do so!

The book: The Celtic Riddle. While I don’t recall much of it, I do remember not wanting to put it down once I started! And looking at the book’s description, it reminds me of Knives Out!

At a library in another city

I was waiting for my family while they were finishing up something, and ended up waiting at – a local library! And I wound up reading some of this really fascinating book. Now I need to check it out from my library and finish what i started or get it for myself.

The book: The Man Who Tasted Words: A Neurologist Explores the Strange and Startling World of Our Senses

Columbia, CA

Not a discovery of any one book (or maybe discovery of a cool thing about a previously known one), but a delightful bookish discovery nonetheless.. Mark Twain’s connections with the area; more specifically. The Calaveras County of The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County fame!

Back to India (and Back Again)

I buy books by default during each visit back to India. And if by any chance, I haven’t done so during the trip itself, I end up buying a few at the airport. While going to India is more like going home, it is also vacation time for us. Here are a few random books I got from previous trips to India (excluding this year)

• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• Multiple City by Aditi De
• Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Guila Enders

Extra, Extra

Here are three of the many books I picked from my favorite pavement bookstore in Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore during our most recent visit to India this summer

• Sapiens – Yuvan Noah Harari
• It Ends With Us – Colleen Hoover
• The Sage With Two Horns – Sudha Murthy

Related Reads

• Looks like the TTT post on October 11, 2011 was my very first TTT! Interestingly, 2011 and 2022 are calendar twins, that is, every date for each of these years falls on the same day of the week. So October 11th falls on a Tuesday in 2022, and it also did in 2011. Of course, this is not a very rare phenomenon, but 2011 was the previous calendar twin for 2022, and the next one is 2033 (after which, well, it is not 2044, sorry.. but 2039!!)
• Scribblings #15: Bookish Summer Vacation Edition

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, have you read any of these books featured/listed today? What have been some of your favorite ‘found on a holiday’ discoveries – books or otherwise?