Though I’m generally content to live a lifestyle with few possessions and little material impact, the one case where my consumerism becomes rampant is when it comes to books. I can look at a leather sofa and feel not a twinge, at a new car with only the slightest stirrings of avarice, at a fifty-six inch plasma-screen television with no more than placid admiration. Get me on Amazon, though, or lead me through a used bookstore, and twenty minutes later, heart pounding, I’ll find myself the proud owner of a Robert Frost anthology, a collection of Russian folk tales, and a wide-margined volume on the use of game theory in social evolution.

This is one vice which I have no interest in giving up. When I look at a $3000 surround sound system, I think: I could buy 300 books for that amount. A good 2500 if I hit the right places with a suitcase full of cash and a delivery truck.

So when the time comes to pull up stakes and live the life nomadic for a few years, I have a problem. How am I supposed to read on the road, without severely weighing down my pack? What happens if I find a book I want to keep, but am in Mongolia? How, in other words, am I to maintain my library?

The Informal Network of International Bibliophiles

The cheapest option is often also the most interesting. This method requires accepting a certain transience to your books, and having an open mind. Knowing a few extra languages helps, too.

Nearly every traveler you’ll meet will have a paperback or two along, and you’ll meet quite a few who’ve finished what they brought at about the same time you finish what you’re currently reading. Places like hostels can become informal book exchanges, as well as good places to exchange book recommendations.

Other than direct exchanges with other people, there are a number of places that allow book exchanges, sometimes with a small added fees. A number of cafes have books available for exchange (or even free, sometimes). Hostels often have exchange libraries, and many used bookstores will have some kind of exchange system in place. So keep hold of that paperback you just finished — it might come in useful. This was the method I used on my last long(ish) trip, and  the resulting reading list included a story about a walk across Africa, Jose Saramago’s “The Double,” Plutarch’s Lives, Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine,” T.E. Lawrence’s “Revolt in the Desert,” and the autobiography of Sydney Sheldon. Keep in mind that the further you get off the beaten track, the fewer English-language books you’ll be able to find for exchange. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing — I would never have looked twice at Sydney Sheldon’s book, but everything else in my Trabzon hotel was either in Turkish or German. The book was fantastic.

Note for those at home or possessing permanent mailing addresses: the book exchange idea has been catching on among the interwebs, with services like BookMooch supplying access to hundreds of thousands of books via mail exchange around the world.

Buying on Location

If you have no books to trade, buy local! One of my favorite things to do in a new city is explore its used bookstores and other places of book-selling. In certain districts of Istanbul, for example, there are open air covered markets with tables upon tables full of used books, and subway entrances and underpasses in Tbilisi are full of musty old Russian volumes sold from carts for a few coins each. Even if you don’t need a book, a search for bookstores can add an interesting new element to your explorations.

The Electronic Option

I never thought I’d be one for the assorted e-readers that began appearing on the market in the wake of the Amazon Kindle. But, having finally bitten the bullet and bought the new 3G Kindle, I have to say I’m quite impressed. An electronic copy will never hold anywhere near the value of a solid physical volume, in my opinion, but the ability to carry a hundred or so books in a thin, lightweight device is a huge bonus to the traveler. In addition, out-of-print books from Amazon and outside sources like Project Gutenberg are often provided for free (or at least very cheaply), giving you access to thousands of classics at the click of a mouse. The screen’s quite good too, with none of the glare or eye strain normal screens cause, and in a decent cover it shouldn’t attract to much attention. Also useful for the traveler is the fact that the Kindle 3G comes with free data service through local cell towers in upwards of a hundred countries, allowing you to send and receive emails about lodging and the like without access to a WiFi network — quite valuable in an emergency.

So there you have it. Do you have any advice for keeping in your books while traveling?

While I use a Moleskine wallet for my day-to-day notes, reminders, and idea, I like to have a more substantial journal to record more complete thoughts in. I used to buy leather journals at local bookstores for the task, but for the last one I bought some scrap leather, paper, and tools, and built one for myself. I used it for more than a year, and it served me very well. I’ve recently built another one, and this time I took a few photos along the way so I could show other people how to do it as well. So, without further ado:

Tools

Leatherworking and Sewing Awl. You’ll use this to actually sew the leather. Chances are, leather heavy enough for use as a book cover will be to heavy to sew with a normal needle. You can probably find one of these at a local hardware store.

Scalpel. A heavy duty scissors would likely work as well, but I prefer the control a scalpel offers. You can also use a scalpel to carve designs into the leather.

Needle nose pliers, to help with the sewing.

Leather shaping tools. If you intend to tool the leather yourself, you’ll need something appropriate to the task. I used a standard leather awl and a spoon-tipped modeling tool for mine, but with a little searching you’ll find that there is every imaginable tool out there for the shaping and carving of leather.

Materials

Scrap leather. You can get leather for quite low prices by searching online (I get quite a lot of mine off of eBay) or asking owners of local leather working shops to give or sell you their scrap. For book covers, I like heavy, stiff leather. If you want to tool the leather yourself, make sure you buy veg (vegetable) tan leather, which is pale in color. If you buy this, you’ll probably want to buy stain also (see below).

Thread. This should come with the sewing awl. It just needs to be heavy enough to work with and hold up over the years–presumably your journal will be built to last.

Leather Dye. If you want a different shade than the leather you already have, you can use a dye. You can also use dye to make permanent patterns on your leather cover. If you use veg tan leather, you will have to use the dye (or stain) to “set” the leather once you’ve worked it.

Paper. There are plenty of places to get reams of good, high-quality paper online. You can also check a local craft store. Make sure you get something sturdy which you won’t mind looking at for a while. Also make sure the paper is “acid-free, archival quality,” which will ensure the journal remains in good condition for decades to come.

Making the Journal

1. Start by making the pages of the journal. For the method I use, I fold sections of seven 8.5″ by 11″ sheets of paper directly in half, and pile the sections to make the inside of the journal. You can use any size you like, and any number of pages –the important part is the fold itself. Make sure the folds are well creased and even for each section of paper.

2. Now, stack the folded sections together to determine the width of the journal’s spine. From here there are two ways to go–you can either create a wraparound cover of the sort common to many leather journals, or you can actually create a separate spine and cover. For this journal, I chose the second option–we will follow that path for the rest of this post.

3. Cut the spine and covers to size. Make sure to make the spine half an inch wider on each side than the thickness of your stacked pages, as you will use this extra material to sew on the covers.

4. Tool and stain the pieces. Now’s the time to create your cover design and implement it. Veg tan leather offers by far the most opportunity for decoration. You start by the tooling process, where you soak the leather surface (I just apply water liberally with a brush) and then make impressions in it with your leather tools. Once the leather dries, you can make more sharp designs by actually carving patterns into it with your scalpel. In these photos, the Ouroubouros (circled snake) and symbol on the front are carved with a scalpel, while the circled A on the back is tooled using the wet leather method. Then, stain the leather in a shallow vat or with a brush. You can make further designs when the stain is almost dry by scraping it clean with a knife–this is how the runes were created on the front of mine and the stripe pattern on the back. Notice how scraping off the stain also highlights tooled sections where the stain isn’t scraped off.

5. Sew the pages to the spine. This will take some time, and be careful–it’s easy to end up with some very crooked sewing lines if you’re not careful. I start by using a piece of scrap paper to mark out a guide for spine sewing. You should only need six holes or so, but they should be even, for appearance’ sake. You will sew by making your awl puncture directly into the crease of one of your paper stacks (I use seven sheets per stack instead of ten or more because it makes sewing easier) and through the leather of the spine, in a straight line running down the crease and the length of the spine. Sew the rest of the stacks in line with the first, making them as tight as possible–I’ve created journals in the past that felt poorly-made because the paper sections were sewn too far apart, making the leather feel “loose.” When you’re finished you should have your “book” of pages in the center of the spine and about half an inch of loose leather front and back.

6. Use that loose leather to attach the cover and back. Sewing the covers “inside,” that is, between the flap and the paper itself, will make for a tighter binding, but will also require a longer period of pressing (see step X). Sew tightly, using perhaps a third to half an inch per stitch, making your knot on the inside of the cover when finished.

7. Do any touch up staining with a small brush, if it’s needed, such as along the edges or over knots here and there.

8. Once all the stain is dry, place the journal under heavy weight, evenly distributed across the surface. I use a stack of old clothbound national geographic collections, probably weighing around fifty or sixty pounds. This is to crease the pages and lock the cover into the “book” shape–if you don’t this, the journal will constantly be falling open from the stiffness of the paper and the spine. Leave it under the press for a few days.

9. Pull it out of the press and put your name on the front cover. You’ve put a lot of work into this journal–you don’t want to lose it now!

And there you have it. If any of you try this, take a picture and send it my way–I’d love to see what you come up with!

While preparing for my trip last May, one of the most common topics to come up in the countless “what to pack” lists was how to store your money. The standard “family trip to Italy” brand of advice was for the under-the-clothes money belt. This also struck me as a dead giveaway of one’s helpless tourist status, which, in my mind, is a far more attractive target to the world’s criminals than other less paranoid means of concealment.

On the other hand, I didn’t want to carry around a wallet in my back pocket, as such things tend to fall out or mysteriously vanish, as nearly happened to me in the train station in Skopje when a nimble-fingered kid tried to snatch my precious money supply after watching where I stowed it when buying a train ticket.

Another common problem I had, being a writer and apt to forget ideas if I didn’t record them immediately, was not having an easily accessed journal or notebook to write things down in. The solution to all of the above: the Moleskine wallet. No, Moleskine doesn’t actually sell a wallet–but all of their pocket-sized notebooks have a pocket on the back cover that works just fine for it. They do tear easily, so you’ll have to reinforce it with tape, but once you get used to it you’ll never go back.

My personal preferred favorite is the squared soft cover notebook, but Moleskine really does have something for everyone.

The first thing you notice when you begin to condense your life into a backpack is just how much you own that you really don’t need. I’ve always prided myself in owning little, so looking at the heap that’s going into storage for the summer sparks my mind into contortions of justification. That box is full of useful tools, I tell myself–I’m sure one day when I get back I’m going to need that old screwdriver I bent into an L-shape when I was in high school so I could learn how to pick locks (which didn’t work, but that’s beside the point). Or the roll-up keyboard I bought months ago for this very trip, before I realized I could type easier on the small but natural-feeling keys of my Eee PC.

Maybe when I get back I’ll burn it. Or sell it. Or something. Probably not. At any rate, on to the contestants.

PACKING

• The pack: my Lowe Alpine Walkabout 25. I’ve had this pack for a few years now and taken it everywhere from a 100-mile trek in the Shenandoah to the high deserts of the southwest to Bermuda in our ten day beach-camping trip two Easters ago. Not huge, but tried and true and with plenty of miles on it.
• Assorted compression sacks, for sleeping bag and clothes. Waterproof, too, for if I ever need to protect my camera in a pinch (besides, there’s nothing worse than a wet sleeping bag).
• A Kiva Key Chain Pack. Packs up small, perfect for day trips and for checking assorted no-carry items on my flights there and back.

SLEEPING

• A mountain hardware synthetic sleeping bag, very light, very compact. Now before I get castigated for bringing things I don’t need, I’d like to point out that I do in fact plan to do some real backpacking (stay tuned for Corsica and the GR20 sometime in early June!).
• A lightweight sleeping bag liner, which doubles as bedding for hostels and the like.
• An ultralight backpacking groundcloth.
• The GoLite Ultra-Lite Poncho Tarp, which works both as a poncho and a shelter. Touristy I know, but hey, when the rain starts falling we’ll see who’s laughing.
• Paracord, in varying lengths, for setting up shelter and other sundries.

CLOTHES

• I usually don’t spend a lot of money on clothes, but this time it was worth it. ExOfficio Nomad Pants are lightweight (they pack amazingly well), water resistant, odor resistant, tear resistant, and just generally travel resistant.
• A pair of linen pants, because I’m too poor to buy two pairs of the $60 variety.
• Shorts, and assorted underwear and socks. Smartwool is amazing, and I’ve got plenty in stock. When you come from a family of backpackers, getting socks for Christmas is actually a good thing.
• A couple of t-shirts, a couple of button-downs.
• Blundstone Boots, which I am in love with. A hard initial hit on the wallet, but well worth it. They look great (I got the tapered toe dress boots), have great traction, and are durable and breathable. Perfect for walking long distances in something other than tennis shoes.
• My hat, which was broken in in the Utah desert. Not much to look at, but I suppose it has sentimental value.
• A lightweight jacket.

FIRST AID, ETC.

• Assorted supplies, bandages, alcohol rubs, etc.
• Grapefruit Seed Extract, which purports to have magical bacteria-fighting qualities and prevent traveler’s stomach. For a few bucks I figure it’s worth a shot.
• Emu Oil, from a farm back in Montana. Works on burns and sores like no other.
• All Natural Pacific Shaving Oil, which is great for those of us who have to shave a few times a week. A tiny bottle like this is good for at least eighty or ninety shaves.
• The The Pocket Doctor: A Passport to Healthy Travel. A pocket-sized book with first-aid and medical advice for your daily ailment.

ELECTRONICS AND CAMERA EQUIPMENT

• My Canon Digital Rebel XT. If you’re going to see some decent sights, you might as well have a decent camera. Not pictured in the image above, for obvious reasons.
• A monopod, for taking stable pictures without taking up too much valuable pack space.
• At a fraction of the cost of the equivalent Canon lens, the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens surprised me. Good image quality. A bit noisier than the Canon lens on autofocus and zoom, but great for the price.
• A Eee PC, which I seriously should have waited until now to buy, as they’re much better and even cheaper than when I bought mine. Ah, well. So it goes.
• A portable hard drive for pictures.
• A SanDisk Sansa Fuze, loaded with songs, audiobooks, and Pimsleur language programs for most of the countries I’ll be visiting.

ART AND LITERATURE

• Not quite as heavy as it sounds. I want to do some sketching and ink work while I’m abroad and, if lucky, maybe even make some cash while I’m at it. Thus I’m bringing my art set and a sketch pad.
• And, of course, some reading. I’ll bring a paperback that I don’t mind trading away once I’ve finished it–any suggestions?
• A Moleskine notebook to serve as a travel journal, with attendant pens.

Contrary to what you may believe, this all does actually fit into my backpack. Very, very tightly.

Two weeks until I get to try it out.