Passing Them Along

I love buying travel books but I don't really love owning books. (This is something I'm working on though.) I especially love the EyeWitness Top 10 city guides but sometimes a trip calls for something a little bigger. For my big trip this summer, I had a Top 10 for St. Petersburg and Beijing, many thanks to JennB last Christmas for those. However, it was a long trip, both in time and distance, also a bit of a strange trip. I felt I needed to get some real travel guides for this one. I picked up the only two available for the Trans-Siberian: Trans-Siberian Handbook and Lonely Planet Trans-Siberian Railway. One of my favourite things about getting guidebooks is that when friends, and even acquaintances, go to visit the same places I lend them out. Each time the person writes their name inside the front cover and the date of their trip, my Top 10 Paris one has upwards of 8 or so uses. I figured no one I knew would ever be taking this trip and I would end up saving these as souvenirs. In an awesome turn of fate, a friend of mine is going in January! I am mailing him the books today (which is why I took a photo with them.) I have added his blog to My Links to the left so you can follow along on Matt's journey. I'm very jealous that he is going in the winter.