Tag Archives: Inspirational

On Armchair Traveling and Pipe Dreams

Book Cover of Epic Runs of the World by Lonely PlanetYou might be wondering why I’m choosing to highlight our travel collection in light of the current situation that makes traveling in the immediate future a bit of a pipe dream… and you’d be absolutely right to wonder! In fact, I’m writing this post with a bit of a self-delusional fervor tinged with a bit of optoomuchism, as Penelope Lumley in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place* put it (i.e. overly optimistic in light of what is known, or perhaps more of a strategic optimism to prevent total deflation). I’ve changed all of the linked titles to those electronically available via Overdrive (either VPL or Markham) or Hoopla Digital, so please, join me in dreaming a little too hard about leaving our front doors and traveling to destinations beyond the grocery store! Join me on an armchair travel.

What’s Armchair Traveling, you ask? Armchair travel is when you travel wherever you so desire using the transportation vehicle that is your imagination, and it can be quite fun, whether you’re the sort to armchair travel as you read novels taking place in another part of the world, sucking you into the time & place in which they are set; if you lose yourself in learning all about the history of a place and time; or if you’re the armchair traveler that gets a kick out of imagining and planning all the fun adventures you’re going to have (or not have, if you prefer lounging on a beach) when you read about some place and/or time that’s… well. Not here or now.

Just a note before we start: I started this post before Canada started taking measures towards travel, back when we were told that the risk of COVID-19 to Ontarians (Canadians? I forget, now, how widely that net was thrown) was low. I’ve changed most if not all of the titles I refer to and links I link to electronically accessible resources we have access to, but let me know if I’ve missed anything! And the majority of the following are going to be focusing on Lonely Planet’s handbooks and inspiration tomes, but you can also peruse the rest of our travel guides on Hoopla Digital here as we think about future travel plans**.

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