The Book Nerd’s Guide to Packing for Your Vacation

Welcome to the Book Nerd’s Guide to Life! Every other week, we convene in this safe place to discuss the unique challenges of life for people whose noses are always wedged in books. For past guides, click here.
Picture it: your bedroom, on the eve of a weeklong getaway to an exotic beach or some other place people keep telling you is pleasant. You’ve heaved the suitcase from the back of your closet and confronted its gaping maw, to reveal the items you failed to unpack after your last vacation: mostly receipts and boarding passes, along with a tube of chapstick, some spare change, and a sock you don’t actually believe is yours.
That chore completed, you’re now ready to pack for this go-round. The swimsuit, towel, and shoes are simple. The toiletries will have to wait for the morning, because it is not a trip unless you have to unlock the front door three times to retrieve contact solution, toothpaste, and deodorant, respectively. But that is where the straightforward nature of this endeavor ends, because now you need to get to the essentials: clothes and books, listed in no particular order.
If you’re going to be lounging around for several days, you’re going to need something to read, and more likely, somethings to read. Meanwhile, space is limited, given airline baggage fees or the physical limitations of your car’s backseat.
All this is solved, you say. You’ll just take your e-reader. You can have hundreds of books at your fingertips—unless, of course, your fingertips are going to be closer to sand than electrical outlets for long stretches of time. Furthermore, no one will be able to tell at a glance what you’re reading. Maybe this is good for you. But maybe it’s not. You publicly complain about the long and storied tradition of strangers asking you about your book, but secretly, you relish it. In what other context can you so easily bring up the word “bildungsroman” in conversation? Even if the other person loses interest, you’ve probably been able to get to Jane Eyre and A Wizard of Earthsea in your definition of the term before the other party scurries off.
So, no, an e-reader isn’t going to cut it.
Now you’re back to the original space problem. You look at your suitcase and look back at your to-read pile. You try to reconcile the dimensions, only to sigh and do the responsible thing: toss in the essential clothing you’ll need. It’s not your preferred method of packing, and you very nearly decide against bringing more than one pair of pajamas, but you know it’s what you should do.
Once that’s complete, you finally allow yourself to decide 1) how many and 2) which books you’ll be toting on this odyssey. First, you figure you’ll need four to five titles to keep you occupied, and to give you options in case that buzzy book club selection doesn’t hold your attention.
From there, you nix the doorstoppers. While you’re obviously gung-ho about taking physical books with you in a carry-on, even you can’t justify hauling a 600-pager through Terminal B. You decide on paperbacks in an overture to reason, though you make an exception for the biography you bought yesterday when you were supposed to be getting a gift for someone else. You shed the work-related titles that, while interesting, should be read at times when you’re more interested in your LinkedIn messages than rest and relaxation. You embrace the graphic novels in your stack, and because they’re so thin, you reckon there’s room for more than five books in your suitcase after all. In fact, you might as well bring all of your to-reads; it’s impossible to predict what mood you’re going to be in once you’re actually at your destination.
Once you’ve worked the zipper around to full closure, you realize you forgot to pack any undergarments whatsoever. But you know what? You’ll just buy underwear when you get there.