In Praise of the Book Exchange

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  05.29.09 | 10:36 AM ET

Photo by dreamsjung via Flickr (Creative Commons)

As I’ve mentioned, I loved nearly everything about my visit to Bequia, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, last week—but today, finding myself craving a nice, lightweight paperback novel, one particular memory from the island stands out.

The book exchange was ubiquitous there. I’m used to seeing them around hostels and budget guesthouses, but in Bequia, they were everywhere—from my hotel lobby to the restaurant where I ate lunch one day, it seemed there was a shelf full of paperbacks waiting for a trade in every corner.

My guess is that the yachties who flock to Bequia are probably responsible for all the book exchange shelves; I’d imagine you go through a fair number of drugstore paperbacks during a long stint at sea. But whatever the reason, I got a little thrill every time I spotted the modest stacks. I’d poke through them while I was waiting for my meal or drink to arrive, checking for inscriptions inside the front covers—maybe I’d find a long line of travelers who’d signed their names?—or counting up the number of Dan Brown or James Patterson titles on offer.

I’m not normally a devourer of paperback fiction, but, thanks in part to the book exchanges I’ve stumbled across in hostels over the years, it’s something I associate closely with my travels. I read “The Devil Wears Prada” in an Istanbul bunk bed, and “Confessions of a Shopaholic” on an overnight train ride through Canada’s Maritimes, while “The Da Vinci Code” prompted a late night of reading in northern England. In the last year or so, though, I’ve seen the inside of more motels than hostels, and my on-the-road reading habits have altered accordingly. Bequia’s book exchanges reminded me of those good old days—and also made me wish more restaurants and hotels would build paperback shelves of their own.

The only problem with Bequia’s bookshelves? I couldn’t do anything more than look—I didn’t have a just-read novel of my own to trade in. I guess we’ll have to add a disposable paperback to the list of books you shouldn’t travel without.

Tags: Hostels, Literature, Why We Travel, Caribbean, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Literary Travel

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for In Praise of the Book Exchange

Karl Eklund 05.29.09 | 2:11 PM ET

Books are expensive in St. Vincent—a used paperback will typically cost a day’s hard labor. We go up to the states for a couple of months each summer and buy a lot of secondhand paperbacks and send them down to St. Vincent in the fall. After we read them we give them to the Public Library who distributes them to village libraries.

Anybody who wants to donate books is generally appreciated.

Love2SeeNewThings 06.01.09 | 12:17 PM ET

I’m sure plenty of people would love to help by donating a book or two ~ after all even if it was a favorite book, how many times can one read it until it falls apart.  So, Karl (or anyone else w/ info.), any ideas on where we could send some used paperbacks?  Anything we should know ahead of time ~ as in dos and don’ts?

Thanks!!!

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