Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Long trip with a voracious reader

We are about to head out of town for a couple of weeks and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about what to do for kid that reads a lot. He will easily read 100 pages a day and we'll be gone for a couple weeks. That's just a lot of reading material to plan for. I do not want to pack a bunch of books as the weigh a lot and take up a lot of room. He doesn't really like reading on a tablet, so that won't work.

I'm sure that there are some other parents that have had to deal with this and I'm curious to hear what strategies worked/didn't. Do you buy books at the destination? Do you get a library card for the city you are visiting? Do you find one or two long books?

It's the kind of question that will get eye rolls everywhere else but here. I really would appreciate any ideas on this.

Check at your local library and try some different styles of e-readers. The e-ink ones tend to be more 'paper-like' and less 'screen-like.' I mean, I love my Nook, but for real-feel reading, I still go back to my Sony every time, and the battery life on it ROCKS.

Otherwise, there was no real alternative to just lugging around a lot more weight than anyone sane would acquiesce to in the first place. BTDT, by the way. I recommend a combination strategy there-- take some new books, buy some at destination.

Are you driving or flying? Luggage space is a much bigger issue when flying.

Even if he doesn't like e-readers, if he is faced with a choice of "read on the e-reader or don't read," he may decide that it's worth it for the trip.

We love the Kindle Paperwhite as it has little glare and is pretty awesome for reading. You can find great deals on them now that the Kindle Fire is on the market.

hmmmm....I would still try the e-reader per HowlerKarma's suggestion, and pack paperbacks. If he's tolerant, choose shorter books with small type:)

We've bought books at a destination with mixed results. The last time, we bought expensive books in the airport and DS decided he didn't enjoy 2 out of 3. grrrr....

kindle (paperwhite)! new material only a click away... & if you have an amazon prime account you can borrow a number of titles for free.

my second ds read the hobbit @ 6... this kept him occupied for a little while.

btw, we have never experienced the eye roll thing, for example bookshop keepers seem to love kids who love to read :-) $$$

safe travels.

I would offer an ereader and nothing else. Because I think that 2 weeks of vacation time (I am assuming vacation) is tolerable without books. I usually take an ipad with ebooks loaded, a sudoku book (difficult level), a puzzle book, chess strategy puzzles, a soroban math book and one really big classic literature book (like Hobbit, Narnia etc) to read aloud to him and that keeps both DS and me busy He also brings his journal and writes about his trip and draws pictures when he is bored sitting around and does not want to read books on his ipad.

Yes, try an e-ink reader instead of a tablet. We have a couple e-ink Nooks and like them a lot. Your library probably has plenty of ebooks to borrow for it.

Maybe you could just plan to visit some book stores while you're away? But ~1400 pages isn't really so bad for packing if no e-reader will suffice.

A few years back I took a several week summer trip with DS in tow, it was partly a college tour for DD. This meant dragging my DS, 12 at time on a lot of college tours. Lots of time where he had to sit around bored. This wasn't a car trip, and involved flights, rental cars, train trips. (My son gets very carsick and can't read in the car, it's quite inconvenient.) He was re-reading Harry Potter than summer. At that time Harry Potter you couldn't be bought as an ebook and our entire set was hardbound books.

I seem to remember bringing the book he was on & the one after (one of the first two), and sending them back with my husband who was only on one portion of the trip. I just bought him paperback copies (used if I could find them) of the books as we went along and a small string backpack so he could carry the current book on his own. I now have a photo series that includes my son sitting down everywhere he could find with his nose in a HP book.

I agree with others a tablet would be ideal. Have you tried different ones, I love my Kindle. I can read it even in the bright sunlight.

If you are going to be moving around a lot, you could pick up books at the local booksale, rummage sale, Goodwill, etc, and leave them behind as you go. If you are going to be staying in one place, you probably can't get a library card, but find the local Goodwill and buy books that you can, again, leave behind or re-donate. If you are flying, and going through Milwaukee, there is a used book store in the airport terminal! Stellar idea!