What books do you bring on vacation?

This episode was recorded in-person and on location during our sister vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii! We kept our reading choices for the trip a secret from one another and did a live reveal, then we talked all about vacation reading while getting a little tipsy on tropical fruit juice and rum cocktails. 

Among and around several digressions, we discuss questions like, what types of stories do you like to read on vacation? How many books do you bring? What format of book do you bring and why? What are the pros and cons of different formats on vacation? When and where do you read on vacation? We also talk about other bookish, touristy things you can do on vacation. Join us on island time for this fun episode!
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Books we're reading in this episode:  
  
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan
The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Dinner Lady Detectives by Hannah Hendy
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Transcript

[All Books Aloud intro and theme music]

Martha: Hey, Liz. 

Elizabeth: Hi, Martha. 

Martha: How are you?

Elizabeth: I'm great. 

Martha: Me too. 

Elizabeth: Because I am sitting in the same room as you looking at your shining face. 

Martha: Yes. 

Elizabeth: And outside of us is the island of Hawaii. 

Martha: Yes, it's beautiful. 

Elizabeth: Yes, we are on vacation together and it has been amazing.

We've only been here a couple days, but it's already been [00:01:00] An amazing trip and . We wanted to bring a podcast on location, in person, about vacation reading. 

Martha: With a Pog and coconut rum. 

Elizabeth: Required. Our topic is What books do you bring on vacation and what is your reading aesthetic on vacation?

Let's talk about it. 

Martha: We each brought our books to Hawaii without telling the other what we were bringing. And we thought it would be a fun surprise to reveal to each other in person.

 I'll go first, Liz. How about that? 

Elizabeth: Should we try to do a 

drum roll? Dah dah dah dah dah. 

Martha: I brought two paperbacks. The first one is Nora Goes Off Script by Annabelle Monaghan. 

This is one of three books that I have with me on this trip. I think this is the perfect beach read [00:02:00] because Like I said, it's a paperback, it's under 300 pages, it's a romance, kind of a rom com, I think. I haven't read it yet.

Yeah. But, the great part is I got it at my local thrift store, Bishop's Attic, for 2. So, I don't care really what happens to it. It can get sandy, it can get sunscreen on it, it was a 2 book. 

Elizabeth: Ultimately, what I want to happen to it is that it goes home with me. Yeah. Because that book has been on my TBR.

So, 

Martha: it looks great. And here's my tip for anyone who is looking for books at the thrift store. When I see one that catches my eye, I look it up on Goodreads, and if it's over a four star review, then I figure it's worth buying. That's my little litmus test for thrift store book buying. , if I can get through it, then it's going 

home with you.

Elizabeth: Well, Martha I wish that you had given me that tip. Before this [00:03:00] episode, because the first book that I brought with me is also a paperback book. This is really funny to me, actually, because we both have, essentially the exact same strategy for this.

Because as you know, I usually read library books for my physical books, one of the reasons being that it makes me feel less guilty to not finish the book. To abandon when it's a library book because I haven't paid anything for it. I haven't created an item to be gotten rid of.

Related to our last episode. , and I'm also a librarian. And so I'm surrounded by books in the library every day of my life. So it just makes sense. But I don't like bringing library books with me when I go on trips because, I do actually care about library books a lot and reverence them, despite the fact that our last episode we were talking about throwing books away [00:04:00] and people often will, get mad at librarians for weeding and saying that, how could you with books?

And so , my rant about that is always just books are for use, books are for use. And so I feel like maybe I went ranty a little bit too far in the other direction in the last episode to make that point. But I do actually care a lot about the library books in my library, and I don't want to ruin them, even though, things happen.

And I always would reassure a student who had this worry, and just be like, no, it's fine, just use the book, whatever happens, we'll figure it out. You might have to buy a replacement, it's not the end of the world, you can get a cheap one, which is all true. But Bottom line is that I don't want to ruin a library book if I can help it.

So I do tend to not bring them on trips with me, especially a trip like a beach vacation, because I just feel like the Likelihood of it getting wet or getting sand in it or whatever is just higher. I bought this book on a recent trip to the Oregon coast that Alex and I took when we went to a cute little library that was in the coast town where we were staying.

And they were [00:05:00] having a library sale, or they always have basically a room. That is their book sale. When they weed books out of their collection, the ones that aren't completely destroyed, they clearly just put them into that little room. And so, it was cheap. It was like, I don't think it was two dollars, but I don't think it was more than five dollars.

I haven't even actually told you what it is yet. So , the book is The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellows. I think that I mentioned in the last episode that I had just started reading it. And I hadn't gotten very far in it by the time I was packing to leave for this trip, so I brought it with me. , I didn't look it up on Goodreads to see if people liked it or what the rating was, I just went with, I loved the, premise of the book it's in the 1920s, and there is a murder, and there is a young woman who goes to live with the Mitfords,

and so I thought it would be perfect. And I basically only made it about a quarter of the way through. So I think under normal circumstances, this would have been a book that I might have given up on. But there's been something that's been keeping me going with it.[00:06:00] 

Martha: Hmm.

Elizabeth: I think that it could be that it's that I really want to know what happens, but I also think that it might be that it's because I paid for it. 

Martha: Yes, even though it wasn't that much. 

Elizabeth: Yes, 

but the cheapskate in me is like, that is gonna be a waste of that money if you don't read the book. So I actually think that's really interesting because I was so gung ho for the just don't finish it if you don't like it camp and I am still But that is a lot easier when you haven't spent any money on the book when you just checked it out from the library You should re listen 

Martha: to that episode and see if it yeah changes your mind about finishing it 

Elizabeth: It's 

weird 

because it's not like I'm not liking the story.

I am enjoying the story I think that what is tripping me up a little bit is that it's pretty slow pace for being a murder mystery it's supposed to be a thriller Murder mystery. And it's long, too. And it just is going slow. , it's over 400 pages. It's 430 pages. 

Martha: I have a question for you, because you're mostly a [00:07:00] character reader, is part of it to do with the characters?

Do you not like them? Are they not developed very well? Do you think that could have something to do 

with it?

Elizabeth: That's interesting that you say that, because now that I, now that you ask that question, it is much more of a character read than most mysteries are. The main character, who is, It's named Louisa, who's the young woman who had, a really horrible situation at home and then goes to be a maid slash governess for the Mitfords.

We really get a lot of her story and are in her perspective most of the time. She's not the only perspective. We also are in the perspective of a police officer named Guy, who I think is going to end up being a love interest.

But it's not, it's certainly not sold as a romance, it's sold as a murder mystery. So yeah, I don't know, that's interesting, because it is more of a character read, but I think maybe I was expecting more of a story read when I went into it, and that's what I was in the mood for, potentially. And that's what I look for in this type of book, and then when it wasn't that, for some reason it's [00:08:00] just not pushing my buttons.

But , I'm still not giving up on it. I was reading it last night. So, we'll see. 

Martha: Maybe you'll get through it, in a different headspace on vacation. Maybe it will be more appealing, or maybe not. 

Elizabeth: Maybe. I think I'm going to give it a couple more sessions where I really sit down, and I'm like by the pool, and there's no reason that I wouldn't be enjoying some reading time.

And if I can't get into it then, I think I might just give up on it. 

Martha: So, 

I did bring a backup. If I finish Nora Goes Off Script, if we have a pool day or a beach day where we really get into our books and we, you know, if I end up finishing it, I have a backup. It's The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, which we've talked about before.

Liz loves this book. I haven't read it.. It's also in paperback and it's fairly short. It's only like 205 pages and I got it for free because I am in a Book [00:09:00] club Called be a part of the conversation where we read books that are being challenged by different groups to be banned Because we want to know what the content of the book is what?

People who want to ban it take issue with, just so we can be educated in, the argument, 

Elizabeth: yeah, that's the first thing I thought is that that is perennially one of the most challenged and banned books in the country.

Martha: Yeah, so I thought that was another great pick to bring because Not that it doesn't have any value, but again, it was free, it's paperback, it's short, maybe I'll read it on the plane ride. Cause I have one more stop before I go home. I have lots of plane rides in my future. A good book for the plane, potentially.

Elizabeth: That's really interesting because I think that one of the things that I was wondering about your reading on vacation is also about when you read. By which I mean, when on vacation. , it sounds like you do read on the plane during the actual traveling part. You've [00:10:00] also mentioned reading on a beach or reading by the pool. Do you feel like you prefer different types of books or different reading experiences for those different vacation moments?

Or would you just read the first book that you started reading you would read wherever you are?

Martha: I do feel 

like I'm a little bit more of a mood reader on vacation. And that's why I like to bring a couple options. If I'm not feeling a certain book when I'm on the beach, then I can kind of switch it up.

When I was planning in my head, I mentioned already, I was thinking Nora Goes Off Script seems like a light hearted read that would be great for vacation, a typical beach read. It's light, entertaining, airy, fast, it's not too serious. Whereas The Plane, I feel like, is more of a setting for the bluest eye.

, it's intense, you just get into it, all you can do is sit there and read. And get into the story. I could potentially finish this book on a long enough plane ride because it's only 200 pages. 

Elizabeth: Yeah, and [00:11:00] it's engrossing enough that it might help the time go faster. 

Martha: And I will say, I don't always read on the plane.

On the flight down here, I didn't because it was a red eye and I was so exhausted. I just didn't feel like it, so I, napped and watched Queer Eye on Netflix that I had downloaded and cried a little bit. And, you know, so. Yeah, I do think I'm a little bit more of a mood reader on vacation, I don't want to put any pressure on myself to read at a certain time, or a certain pace, or a certain book, I just want to have the freedom to relax on my own terms, that's the whole point of vacation,

but mostly, . The opportunities to read that I find on this sort of vacation are lounging at the pool, lounging at the beach. On the plane, maybe in the morning with coffee, just depending. I feel like I'm usually so exhausted by the time we go to bed, especially on a tropical vacation where you're [00:12:00] in the sun all day, that I tend to just go to sleep and not read before bed, which is different than at home.

Elizabeth: Yeah. 

Martha: What about you? 

Elizabeth: I have been reading before bed. I do feel like I still need to do that, even when I'm on vacation. I've become a much worse sleeper the older I've gotten and I need to maintain as much of my bedtime ritual and routine as possible. Even when I'm on vacation because otherwise.

I get all messed up. 

Martha: Yeah. Fair enough. 

Elizabeth: I don't read during the plane ride because I have to take anti anxiety medication that makes it so that I'm not only very sleepy, but that I wouldn't remember the story the next day. And I had to learn that the hard way because when I first started taking this medication for flying, I feel like I'm fine during the time that I'm on it.

It just brings my anxiety down. And so I read some of my book, and I also have done this with TV shows, I've watched movies or TV shows that I think [00:13:00] I'm taking in, but then the next day when the medication has worn off, I don't remember it, you know, so I had to go back and reread the book.

So now I don't read books on the plane, but I do read before bed still on vacation. I love to read at the beach or at the pool or anytime there's downtime. Like we talked about in one of the episodes, I think the one about how do you read more. I just always have the book with me when I'm on vacation.

So that anywhere that we stop and I have any amount of time, I can just read it if the mood strikes me. That's 

Martha: why your purse is so heavy.

Elizabeth: Yeah. 

Martha: Liz asked me to hold her purse earlier and I was like, oh my god. Yeah, your arm 

Elizabeth: almost hit the floor when you did it. And the water bottle and all this stuff. The other place that I like to read on a certain type of trip, which I feel like doesn't really apply to this type of trip, but it does apply to the trip that I was on to the UK.

 Which is that when I'm in a new city, A lot of times the way that I like to travel is I like to experience a place as if I live there. Mm-Hmm. . [00:14:00] By which I mean, , I love being a tourist and going to the tourist attractions, but I also love going on a walk around town to a public park the way that I might if I live there.

Mm-Hmm. . And , one of the ways that I like to read is just going to a coffee shop. In the neighborhood where I'm staying, and just sitting there with a coffee and reading like I might in a place that I lived. 

Martha: I love that.

That's so cute. 

Elizabeth: I really love doing that. It's one of my favorite things to do when I'm on a trip. That's that type of trip. The one that we're on now, I feel like that's, it's not really a good fit for a tropical vacation trip, but maybe it could be. 

Martha: Maybe. , 

I'm imagining, if we drop Al and Scott off for their fishing trip, we can just go to Lava Java and sit there and drink coffee and read our books or something.

Elizabeth: Yeah, I 

actually now immediately want to do that. 

Martha: Yeah. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. Get rid of the men and just go read. , but yeah, I do love doing that and I really love doing that in England because I love to imagine myself living in England, which I still haven't managed to do despite the fact that I found a British man to marry.

But [00:15:00] yeah, I feel like on vacation I can just read anywhere and I always want to be ready to read. But I also never end up reading as much as I hope that I might read. When you said that you brought three books, I was like optimistic. Yeah. Although now that I think about it, I actually technically brought three books too.

So let me finish telling you what I brought. 

Martha: Yeah. What's your 

second 

book? 

Elizabeth: My second book is called The Dinner Lady Detectives by Hannah Hendy. And it's also a paperback. This book I bought new in a just delightfully adorable queer bookshop in Leeds, in the UK, called The Bookish Type.

Martha: Cute. 

Elizabeth: And I went in there to see if they wanted to partner with the conference that I'm helping to plan, , but I just felt like when I was in there I just really wanted to support the bookshop because it's this indie bookshop. And it was so cute, , it was adorable, and I love the mission of it being a queer indie bookshop, and so I really just wanted to support it.

So, I looked around at the different books, [00:16:00] and it's a British Cozy Mystery is how it's described. And so I was , in a mood for a mystery, and this one that I had wasn't hitting the spot, and so I got this one. And It is super cheesy. On the back, the first line is murder is a dish best served ice cold.

And what's that's referring to is it's not spoiling anything to say because the first chapter of a murder mystery is always that there's a body because that's how a murder has a murder mystery has to start. , and basically dinner ladies are what British people call lunch ladies in a school.

And that has to do with British people. So, in some places, in some classes, , called lunch dinner. And that still is the case a little bit, but it was much more the case in the past. Mm hmm. , and so, all of the main characters in this book are dinner ladies, and one of their number is found dead in the walk in freezer in the school kitchen, where they all work.

Yeah. And so, they're all traumatized. But the two main characters [00:17:00] are Marjorie and Clementine, and they are , a couple. I don't, I actually can't remember if they're married. I think they might be in the book, but I can't remember. , so yeah, two dinner ladies are in a relationship there's like five of them, I think, that work in the kitchen.

 And it's really, really cute. I'm actually, now that I'm talking about it again, I think that this is the one that I'm going to start reading first when I'm here because I'm really, looking forward to finding out what happens 

yeah. Because of course Marjorie and Clementine basically are so curious and something seems off to them and so they take it upon themselves to start investigating their, it's an amateur detective type of mystery. , it also made me think about how In, , Happy Place, which I just finished reading, and I don't think I ever talked about on the podcast, but I know that Martha, it was your favorite book last year, and so I read it early in the year because I just wanted to know what all the fuss it was about, and I absolutely loved it.

I loved it so much. But when I bought this, I was like, Oh my gosh, this looks so cute and it's so cozy and I can't wait to read it. But it's about a [00:18:00] murder, a pretty gruesome murder. And it made me think about how Harriet and her, the main character in Happy Place and her friends have this conversation in a bookstore where She's like grimacing at the horror novel that one of her friends chooses and the friend is like, didn't you pick a murder mystery that has a gruesome murder in it?

And she's like, yeah, but it's 

cozy. 

Martha: It's cozy. Yeah, that's her thing. She loves cozy murder mysteries, I've never read one before. I need to, I should try one. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. 

I do really love cozy mysteries, murder mysteries. And I feel like the reason that I love them is a similar reason that people love romances, which is that.

You know what's going to happen. So there's an element of , it's not too intense or too scary or too worrying. 

Martha: It's a comfort read. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. 

Martha: Because there's a formula. Right. Like with romance. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. You 

Martha: know, you 

don't know exactly how it's going to happen, but you know what to 

expect. 

Elizabeth: Right.

So even though the characters, fall out, break up, get in a fight, maybe have some sort of, [00:19:00] sad things happen, it takes less emotional energy to read because you know that in the end they're going to figure it out. And that's, I feel like that's the same thing with cozy mysteries as opposed to a horror novel or a thriller or something like that.

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I'm actually, now that I've talked about that, I'm really excited to start reading. 

Martha: I feel like that 

fits the vibes. It sounds like, , it fits the vibes a lot better. 

Elizabeth: Yeah, I think so. 

Martha: So. I have three books because I always have an audio book going. So that's technically my third book.

, and I just started Warbreaker. It's the first in a series by Brandon Sanderson, because I've really wanted to read some Brandon Sanderson novels. I haven't, and he's a very famous fantasy writer. Which is a little bit of a departure because I don't read a lot of male authors, but he's big and popular and people rave about him, so I read a blog about what books to start with and Warbreaker was one of the suggested [00:20:00] places to break into his works, I'm not very far in, so I can't really speak to what I think about it yet, 

I probably don't listen to audiobooks as much on vacation, because there's not as much downtime where I'm alone, just doing menial things, 

or, you know. 

Elizabeth: Right, which is when you prefer to listen to audiobooks in your normal 

life. 

Martha: Yeah, like cooking, cleaning, driving, so there's not as much of that, so I probably won't get through.

A lot of it, and I actually don't listen to audiobooks on the plane because I need to be doing something else when 

I'm listening to them.

Elizabeth: Oh yeah, I think we talked about that in the, in one of the episodes. 

Martha: Mm hmm. Yeah. Yes.

Elizabeth: That makes sense. 

Martha: So I probably, 

yeah, I probably won't listen to it much, but it's always there if I need one.

Mm hmm. So that's my third 

book. 

Elizabeth: Well, my third book is, uh, Departure for Me. I always prefer print books. I mean, I almost solely prefer print books as we've talked about. Yeah. I do actually still have an audiobook going, but I don't expect that I'll listen to it at all while we're here, because I mainly listen to [00:21:00] audiobooks, when I go on walks at home by myself, and so I just feel like that probably isn't gonna happen.

So my third book that I brought that I might read while we're here is actually an unpublished manuscript. 

Martha: Oh! 

Elizabeth: By, , a writer who Beta read my most recent manuscript for me. 

Martha: Mm hmm. 

Elizabeth: And they didn't give me permission to share their name or talk about their story, so I'm not going to.

They probably would be fine with it, but I didn't reach out to them beforehand, I was put in touch with them by , one of my critique partners, who, , is an author that doesn't really write the same genre as me, but we bonded during a contest that we both won in 2019 called Pitch Wars.

And so she has read a lot of my stuff, but rom coms are not really her forte. And so she put me in touch with this. other person that she knows from Pitch Wars as well, but that I didn't know who does rom coms and also was writing a rom com. And so they beta [00:22:00] read my manuscript and provided a lot of really great feedback.

And I really appreciated all of their notes. And it was really nice to have someone who was completely unconnected from me, read my manuscript, which is not to say that I don't trust your comments or the feedback of my critique partners, but it's just different. giving it to someone who doesn't know me from Adam and, you know, doesn't have a stake in not hurting my 

feelings or whatever.

Martha: Well, and it is different because part of the feedback I gave you was like, Oh my gosh, I love this. I see you in this book and obviously I love you. So I love to see you reflected in it. But someone who doesn't know you 

wouldn't know that. Yeah. So, so it would be 

a totally different reading experience. So I get 

that.

Elizabeth: Yeah. So there's is a rom com Basically the way they describe it is that , the tropes are , a one night stand that turns into more and, there's a family business that the main character is living above, so there's some family drama. So I'm really excited to jump into it.

And , I just loaded [00:23:00] the. Google Doc onto my Kindle, which I very rarely read from, but since it's not published, I just have it as a Google Doc. There's no other way that I can read it other than on a screen. So yeah, I'm gonna give that a try. That'll be a new experience for me. 

Martha: Yeah, Kindles are great for that.

That's how I read your manuscript as well. And it worked really well. Oh, great. You can make notes on it and stuff right on the app, which is handy, and then go back and look at all your notes and highlights and that sort of thing. I feel like talking about the audiobooks and the Kindle is a good segue to talk about does the format matter on vacation?

And, I've already noticed that neither of us brought a hardcover book. Which, I know for me, it's just a matter of space and 

weight.

Elizabeth: Yeah, and also, convenience. It's not. As convenient to lug around a hardcover. You say my purse is heavy with a paper back. Imagine how heavy it would be if it had a hardcover in it.[00:24:00] 

Martha: /I 

suppose if I had a hardcover book that I was really itching to read, I might bring it, but I probably wouldn't lug it around to the beach. Maybe just leave it in the hotel room or something. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. Yeah. I definitely think my number one. Preference for vacation reading is a physical paperback book. 

Martha: E readers can be great in certain situations, but again, , I'm not bringing my Kindle on the beach to get all sandy.

Elizabeth: Right. Yeah, that's the downside of the electronics. You can load as many books on it as you want, but if you don't feel comfortable bringing it with you wherever you go, then what's the good of that? Yeah, so 

Martha: a good paperback, I think, is always That's the handy option for vacation and audiobooks, you know, if you're not traveling with a group or if you feel like you'll have a lot of alone time to walk and that sort of thing, a good audiobook could be nice.

Elizabeth: Yeah. And I do often tend to leave the paperback books behind in some way when I'm on [00:25:00] vacation. Like this place that we're staying at has a bookshelf full of books that I bet. People, , take from and leave here. I bet it's like a , take and leave as you want library. , a lot of hotels have that type of, , book space.

And I've done that before. , I've left my book that I finished reading at the hotel or at the, , at the Airbnb. Or I'll donate it , to a used bookstore or to a library or something like that. Because , if I finish it while I'm there and it's not a book that I feel like I need to hold on to, which I don't often hold on to books as we talked about in the last episode, then I don't need to lug it back in my suitcase and that will leave room for, , a new book that I buy while I'm on vacation or a souvenir or something like that.

That's 

Martha: a great point. I never thought about that, but I love 

Elizabeth: that. Yeah, I don't feel like I probably will go home with either of these paperback books if I finish them. Oh, 

Martha: well maybe I'll take the Dinner Lady Detectives. Yeah. 

Elizabeth: Well, and maybe I'll take Norah's off script. Off script, we can swap. Yeah. We can Swap.

God. It's like I'm drunk. I [00:26:00] only had a quarter of that drink. 

Martha: So you already gave us a great tip about going to the local coffee shop and reading or wherever, a local place and reading. So you feel like you are experiencing what it would be like to live there. What other bookish things do you like to do on vacation? 

Elizabeth: Well, I mean, I love to visit a local bookstore.

That's probably number one, that bookstore that I found in Leeds. It's the perfect example. It's not in the city center, so it's not in a place that you would just happen upon. And I love that. , I love that it was in a neighborhood, and you, I had to find it. And I felt a little bit like a local.

So yeah, visiting local bookstores, I think, is a great part of being on vacation. Yeah, I 

Martha: like to do that too, and actually I'm surprised that neither of us has suggested looking one up yet. We've, well, we've only been here for a couple days, so maybe we need to put that on the list for tomorrow 

Elizabeth: or something.

I think so, and I think that maybe the reason that we haven't is because we're in a group with our partners, and so I think that we're a little bit conscious of doing [00:27:00] things that, all four of us want to do. Yeah, not that they wouldn't want to go to bookstores. Alex loves going to a bookstore.

Yeah, but yeah, we should do that. , the other thing that I love to do and have done before also in the UK, I'm talking so much about being in the UK when we're in Hawaii. I don't know. I go to the UK more than I go to Hawaii. Um, is to , look up whether there are author events in the town that you're visiting while you're there.

I think that I talked on the podcast before about how last year when I was in Cambridge for my conference, it coincided, just coincidentally, with the Cambridge Literary Festival, and I got to see Curtis Sittenfeld. Oh, yeah. And I hadn't planned for that at all. I just saw the posters up around Cambridge, Cambridge Literary Festival, and I looked it up and was like, oh, I wonder who's gonna be there.

And then it was one of my favorite authors. And I got signed what turned out to be my favorite book of that year. And it was just complete coincidence. Such a great, 

Martha: happy accident. And then the snowball effect of, , you told me about that book, I told someone else about that book. Yeah. So many 

Elizabeth: of us have loved it.[00:28:00] 

Well, and so many of us have loved it that now it might be a movie. Because Reese Witherspoon. , her company that she, that makes movies optioned it. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Yeah, I'm, I'm, yeah, 

Martha: I can't wait to see who they cast. I know. , I feel like that could be tough. That could be tough to get right.

Yeah. Her character 

Elizabeth: specifically. Yeah. Yeah. So. I mean, it needs to be , a younger Tina 

Martha: Fey. Well, yeah, I feel like Sally also, the way she described herself. I think Tina Faye's too beautiful. 

Elizabeth: Mm. But part of the her character arc is that she undersells herself.

She's not confident. Yeah, that's true. So we don't actually know how beautiful she is. Right. And Noah thinks she's beautiful. Right. And he's beautiful. Yeah, that's true. So who knows? Who knows? I guess we'll see. Anyways, we digress. Yeah. So yeah, looking up local author events. , and just any other book related events.

You know, we happened upon a market in a parking lot yesterday, and there very easily could have been a book stall in there. There wasn't in the part that I [00:29:00] saw, but that's the type of thing that you just never know. There might be something bookish to find and discover. We drove 

Martha: by a really cool looking library earlier.

Elizabeth: Oh yeah, that's a great point. Thank you for pointing out that. The library aspect, which I didn't even think of. I do love to visit local public libraries when I'm in different places. Well, which is how I got the Mitford Murders book because we went to the library because it just looked really cute and I had never been in the library in that particular town.

And that's 

Martha: another way that you could, , fit reading into your vacation without having to lug books around. I mean, you'd need a library card and you'd have to return it, but I wonder. If that's an option. Yeah, 

Elizabeth: I wonder,, for most public libraries you have to have an address in the area to get a library card because the library is paid for by the local taxes and tax base.

However, I bet, especially in a place like this that is so tourist heavy, [00:30:00] I bet that there are some libraries that have some type of tourist. Thing. Yeah, maybe. I wonder. That's worth looking into. I'm not totally sure about that. But, there often will be a library book sale, like I happened upon. Even if you can't check out a book, you could buy a cheap 

Martha: book.

And it's kind of just a fun thing to explore. Like you said, to act like you're a local. Check out what the library is like and what it might be like to live there and check a book out. 

Elizabeth: Yeah, definitely. And I mean, I like to look at libraries because I just like to look at libraries. Because I'm a librarian.

So I like to look at them and see. What they're like on the inside and how they're organized and how they have the books, Yeah, public libraries, especially in small towns I think are just so adorable the way and the way that they just like shove books in every corner, you know not that they're not organized, but they just have to make use of the small space that they have a lot of times in a way that I Really enjoy 

Martha: and a lot of times they have local artwork and history and stuff like that so you can learn a lot about the area 

Elizabeth: Yeah Yeah, [00:31:00] definitely.

And a lot of times, , libraries and bookstores will have displays of local authors. Mm hmm. Which is also a really cool thing to learn about when you go to a place, especially a place like Hawaii that has, a local Native population that you want to make sure that you're respecting and so learning about them could be a really cool way to do that.

Mm hmm. Yeah, I like that. I guess that's it, huh? Good, yeah. I feel like we've even given ourselves good ideas for our own vacation that we're currently on. Mm hmm, talking 

Martha: through all this, yeah. Which is nice. We'll have to document and post on social media. 

Elizabeth: Yeah, we will. We'll do it. You'll see it after the fact, 

Martha: but Yeah, that's okay.

Well, cool. , I think that it's time for us to get back to our pog and rum and carry on with our vacation. What do you think? 

Elizabeth: Yeah, we're having sushi tonight. Let's go. Yes, I'm so 

Martha: excited. Okay, 

well, if you want even more content from us, make sure you're following [00:32:00] us on social media,/ on Instagram and TikTok, at allbooksaloudpod, and make sure you subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode.

And read on, my friends. 

Aloha. 

Aloha. 

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