[doorhammer]

I personally like reading in different countries.

It sounds silly, but I really do. I toured ireland by bike with a friend of mine (so I wasn't alone) and there were a few times we split up and went off onto different paths, then would meet up later. I liked seeing things, meeting other people, and finding little used bookstores to sell of my previous book and buy another. Then I'd find a little cafe or restaurant and read a little.

I guess that's mostly just to say that you can really do whatever you enjoy normally for fun; sometimes it just feels better doing it in a different location, around a different culture. At first I thought "man, I wasted my money flying out here to read" but then I realized that I really liked it, and so, who cares? It was great.

I agree with the sibling post, also. I spent about a month in Thailand on a grand or so. We went all over the place. Chiang Mai was my favorite area, personally. Lots of culture, and lots to see all over, though.

[barbs]

I think a lot of people experience a strange sort of complementary relationship between travelling and reading. Perhaps it's something to do with the notion of exploring new territory, both physically and imaginatively. This might be why you see lots of "shared bookshelves" in hostels around the world.

You might be interested in BookCrossing.com. You write a note inside a book and leave it in another country, and it's encouraged to read the book, and then take it somewhere else, and keep track of its progress on the website. I'm not sure how successful it is in practice generally, though. I left a book once in Ho Chi Minh city and it got as far as Bangkok, but I don't know where it is now.