Literature & Travel: Alternative Learning

Literature is my cheap way of traveling. Instead of forking out $500 a plane ticket, I pay $15-30 for a book. It's also an opportunity to live vicariously a life of adventure. One that you would like to try on for size, for a week-end or just to change it up, without the risk. It is also a way to broaden the mind and learn in an alternative way.

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat.Pray.Love Author

I frequently read about women of the world. Maybe there is a desire somewhere, to change the world, even just a little. I long to be a world traveller, that's no secret. But could I drop everything to move across the world? I doubt I would. I prefer the safer route of working a job I love, then punctuating it with spontaneous trips and  culturally rich vacations. That said, I love to daydream about worlds away or differing from my own. Which is why I love to read about stories taking place in foreign countries or reading auto-biographcial novels about how travel changes one's life.


My love for this type of literature was latent, discrete. It came out of the closet when I read Eat. Pray. Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. It grew when I read Buddha and it continued to grow after The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Jennifer Steil. One wouldn't be surprised to hear I'm currently reading Indigo, the story of the colour that changed the world. I believe that reading is a  fantastic educational tool, both as a language exercise and a cultural one. 


Travelling really builds character as it constantly shifts your frame of understanding and provides perspective. Unfortunately, despite what we might say about "anything's possible", that "anything" may not always be possible at any given time. I believe I can work towards travelling more. And I do. Meanwhile, I read to broaden my mind, feed my imagination.

The Woman Who Fell From the Sky spoke to me as it told the story of a professional journalist who moved to Yemen to teach a team of aspiring and practising journalists how to improve their reporting. Although her tale was personal, it made any similar experience feel accessible. That is key to opening one's mind to other cultures, to travelling and in some rare cases, to other life styles.


I have never read so much in my life. Not as a child, nor when I was in school or even as a university graduate. It's now that my mind is open to deeper learning. My father is an avid reader and a cross-word athlete and yet, he has not pursued post secondary education. He is one of the brightest and curious people I know. I don't believe our education system is deeply flawed, I believe society at large expects too much of it. There is truly something to Mark Twain's famous quote: "I never let my schooling get in the way of my education." True, lasting learning has to come from the heart; there is only so much your parents or your school can give you. You need to run with what you have and when that's not enough, seek what it is your heart longs to know.