Per the title of my wordpress account, thatbooktravellife, I travel…a lot. In fact, I live abroad and for my job I move every 1-3 years depending on the station I’m assigned too. I love it, though it has it’s challenges, and one of the great things is all the travel!
I recently traveled over the weekend (hence no Friday post…) with some friends to an amazing beach town about 4 hours from São Paulo, where I live. But I made a crucial mistake…I forgot my book sleeves!
I didn’t have anything planned for today’s post, so I decided to blend travel with books today, with some thoughts and tips.
Thoughts on Book Sleeves
Thoughts on Book Sleeves
When I first saw book sleeves become popular on booktube and facebook groups I’m a part of, I thought it was the stupidest thing I’d seen. Okay, maybe not stupidest, but I was like, what is the point of these? I think sometimes I have adverse reactions to consumerism + needlessly buying things, which you see a lot on these kinds of sites. They are kind of expensive ranging from something like $15-$30 and I thought that was silly when one can just be careful when you travel to take care of your books.
Well, boy, was I freakin wrong.
As you can see above, I have six book sleeves now and I am a convert! I travel with a lot of books, and I generally have my carry on and/or purse totally stuffed. Books get messed up. They get stuff on them or on the pages or the fronts get crinkled and it’s ugly and frustrating because WHY did you just ruin this beautiful book?!
I now use these religiously (usually; I messed up this weekend) and they seriously protect your books. I would definitely get a variety of sizes, since not all books measure up the same. I like having a little extra at the top, so it’s not right up against the edge of the sleeve, just so it folds a little to protect the top of the book. The fluffier ones – like the Pyrithian map one above – are definitely bulkier, so keep that in mind when packing.
I have gotten almost all of these through various book boxes. Candle book boxes will sometimes also have them in there, which is really cool! The only one I bought from someone else was the Ember in the Ashes quote one (the red one). I’ve been really happy with all of mine. They are beautiful to showcase when you’re not using them, and they really do protect your books when traveling. I can be a little more “careless” with how I store/stuff these and know that my books will always be well protected!
What do you think about them?
How Many Books for a Trip?
How Many Books for a Trip?
I feel like this is an impossible question…Obviously, it depends! Typically, I bring five books on most of my trips. A lot of my trips are a week long and require long(er) flights, so it makes a lot of sense to bring more. Problem is, I never know if I’m going to be wide awake on the flight or dead asleep. One time I read 2.5 books on a flight. Another time, I read none.
This trip, I brought one and I didn’t even finish it. Womp womp. I knew I was going with friends and that we would be playing games/drinking/talking, so I didn’t bring more than one. If it had just been me and maybe one friend or a boyfriend, I would’ve maybe brought two knowing that our days on the beach would be mostly reading/not talking/not drinking. I do take into consideration what I’m doing on the trip (beach vs traveling) to figure out how much downtime I’ll have to read. But I do typically read before bed, so I always carry one with me! I almost carry one every day in my purse, which is what makes the book sleeves so useful!
that book & travel life 
Just like you, I thought book sleeves were strange and unnecessary at first, but now I use them all the time and I own three of them. It’s a whole lot less worrisome to carry books with you when they’re protected! 🙂