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Holiday gifts and fun reads for the RVer and the armchair traveler at RVHometown

This is the second of three posts suggesting holiday gifts. If you know an RVer who likes a good read or someone who is an armchair traveler, or, maybe you are looking for a good book to snuggle up with this winter, these make nice gift selections.

• RV Traveling Tales: Women’s Journeys on the Open Road —an anthology. Fifty-two women answer the question: What is it like to be a female nomad on the open road? Read more...


• Memphis 7.9 by Sam Penny tells what happens when a huge quake hits the Madrid fault. An RVer figures in the story. Broken River is the followup book. Read more...
  


• 99 Days to Panama by the Halkyards is the story of their trip by RV from the U.S. to Panama. Illustrated. Wonderful armchair travel book and a how-to. Read more...


• Travels with Susie by Gordon Grindstaff is an entertaining book that is a hilarious report of their experiences as they first went through the decision to retire and later, to travel the byways of North America. Read more...


• RV Chuckles and Chuckholes by Darlene Miller is a lighthearted primer on the RV lifestyle. Read more...


• Carol Weishampel’s three books—Grandma’s on the Go, Adopting Darrell, and Grandma's Ultimate Road Trip: Retired, Rejuvenated and Raring to Go from Texas to Alaska — are inspiring accounts of her adventures. In Grandma’s on the Go, she combines her love for travel with parenting a passel of children as she progresses from primitive, tent camping to a series of motor homes--while providing a loving nest for her young charges. Read more...

And, by the way, free shipping if you order three or more books!

Are you an RVing abibliophobic?

Travel without books to read? No way! Maybe you too are an abibliophobic or someone with a fear of being without books. If your partner is weight-conscious about your RV, this sets up a conflict.

Nicky Boston writes about this conflict in "The Addiction" in RV Traveling Tales: Women’s Journeys on the Open Road. She must have something to read, her husband; Don, keeps saying "weight," as she begins adding books.

So how do you find enough books to read without spending a fortune and without books becoming like the rocks in "The Long, Long Trailer?" Here are some ideas:

Finding books

• Libraries often have giveaway magazines and used books for sale.
• If you are in the area for awhile, see about getting a library card. Some do not require a local address, or, you can show you have received mail at a local RV park or the post office.
• Cracker Barrel and Flying J, among others, have books on tape or CD you can rent in one location and return at another.
• Book exchange/library at RV parks. Many have a deal where you can take one if you leave one.
• Independent coffee shops may also have a book exchange area.
• RV gatherings often have a book or item exchange set up where you can trade out one book for another.

Passing books on

• Sell your books at a used bookstore, at Amazon Marketplace or on eBay. Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ will give you store credit or cash for your used books. At Bookmans, an Arizona used bookstore chain, you can buy, sell or trade your books.
• Leave them at an RV park for others or donate newer hardbacks to a library.
• Save them until you meet up with a friend. We have a circle of friends who like similar books and exchange them in the winter when we meet up. Occasionally we’ll use media mail to pass a book on.
• Register your book with BookCrossing.com and leave it where someone might find it and pick it up. Betty Prange, contributor to RV Traveling Tales, gave a copy to a trip mate in Russia who took it to Australia where it is still circulation.

You’ll have to track down a copy of RV Traveling Tales to read the humorous resolution to Nicky and Don’s conflict. You could purchase one for a family member or friend who is curious about the lifestyle and read it yourself first. You’ll enjoy the many stories about life on the road.