Since we’re past the Fourth of July and the summer season has officially started, what are your plans for the summer? Vacations, trips? Trips that involve reading? Reading plans? If you’re going somewhere, do you do any reading to prepare? Do you read local literature as part of your trip? Have you thought about using the LT Local feature to help plan your book-buying?
I don’t have many exciting plans for the summer exactly. My fiance is coming to visit next week, which I’m looking forward to, and we’ll probably be going a few local places, but nowhere particularly interesting for me (maybe for him). After that, I will probably be working and taking time out to visit some friends back in Boston where I went to college. The fall is much more exciting for me – I’ll be heading to York, England, for a Masters degree in Medieval Studies, which I am thrilled about! I am not as thrilled about the paperwork I need to complete in order to get my visa, but it’s a necessary evil. I’m not-so-secretly hoping to get taken on as a PhD student there. I love the city and I can’t imagine anywhere nicer to live, and my own opinions have been nicely backed up by people I know who already live there.
Back to the question! I do love to read books about certain locations when I’m going there, both history and historical fiction. Sharon Kay Penman’s Welsh trilogy made the visit we took to Wales the second summer I went to visit then-boyfriend now-fiance even more exciting. All of my research in history has made my subsequent travels around England really, really cool. This is probably part of the reason that I love York so much – I’ve concentrated a lot of my history in the North and York is really its focal point. Sadly I haven’t traveled much beyond that, but I have been promised lots of travels around Europe and elsewhere, and I know that reading about the locations will make them much more enjoyable.
LT local has been mostly useless here in NJ where my parents live, but it was useful up in Boston. So far I think it will also be useful up in York, based on some looking around. I’m really hoping to find some used bookstores there because I will be poor.
I think the conclusion of this week’s post is that I really want summer to be over so I can get to the fall!
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Just a reminder – I am hosting a giveaway of Surviving Ben’s Suicide by C. Comfort Shields here! It’s open until this Sunday, please take a look!
I would love to visit Wales. My family is from Pembrokeshire, and it’d be great to visit where they left.
I’ve got the first of the trilogy coming, someday, from BookMooch.
Have you read the Mabinogion? Do you speak any Welsh? I’ve been learning it through the BBC online’s Big Welsh Challenge.
I haven’t read the Mabinogion, but I have it and it’s on my Classics Challenge list, so I’ll be reading it soon! I don’t speak Welsh, but I’d be interested in learning – I’ve got a lot of languages to learn, my current project is Anglo-Saxon/Old English. I loved the first of Penman’s Welsh trilogy, I hope you like it too!
Wales is beautiful. I hope you get the chance to visit.
Wow…moving to England? How exciting…I am so jealous! What an experience to have.
Lol I agree, useless in NJ.
Medieval studies sounds cool
England sounds even better! I’ve never been, but its def on my list of places to visit.
Yorkshire is a really beautiful place, and the city of York is wonderful.
I haven’t been there in many years, but definitely hope to go back some day.
I’d love to visit Wales, too, since I have Welsh ancestors.
Your plans really do sound exciting – good luck with your studies!
Oooooo…fall does sound exciting! That’s the best time of year to travel anyway…at least in my opinion.