When I was a little girl, I struggled with reading. It wasn’t easy for me at first; the letters seemed to move around on their own. Since I was young and reading wasn’t something I excelled at immediately, I hated doing it and often pretended not to know how to read whenever asked.

I remember my mother’s ’95 Chevy cruising down an exit one afternoon, towards an aunt’s house while another aunt sat with me in the back seat. She looked out the window, feigning nonchalance, and said to me, “Oh, hey Beeg, (pronounced ‘bee-juh’, a nickname for the nickname BG, that she had given me) look at that big giant sign over there. I can’t see it; I’m old. What does it say?”

She was coaxing me with curiosity to practice reading, having gathered that I could read but just didn’t want to. I squinted at it for a moment before saying, “I dunno, auntie, what’s it say?”—batting my eyelashes in feigned ignorance, committing to my bit.

Eventually, my grandmother joined the mission to get me to read. I idolized my grandmother and followed her everywhere as a child. Natalie was a dainty Irish Canadian woman who was well-read, well-spoken, and elegant despite having grown up in rural Canada and being a mostly single mother of five teenage girls for many years. How that woman found time to learn how to paint, dance, speak French, and recite Shakespeare is beyond me. If the term “Renaissance woman” applies to anyone, it is a good descriptor of my grandmother, and to her, having a granddaughter who didn’t enjoy reading was unthinkable.

My grandmother found an extremely popular fantasy book series and began reading chapters to me before bed on the weekends I spent with her. When I grew eager to read the next chapter, I had to finally cave and practice reading on my own, which quickly became a hyper fixation.

Both my mother and grandmother were avid readers. After I finally caught the bug, you would find the three of us in comfortable silence at the dinner table most nights, fully engrossed in our own personal imaginary worlds.

My grandmother loved bringing me everywhere when I was little, and my book addiction was a perfect way to get me to sit quietly on any car ride, boat trip, or flight. Before big trips, it became a tradition for us to visit the bookstore. I could have as many books as I could carry, but under one condition: I could not open them until our trip to ensure I had plenty to keep me occupied while in transit.

I am so grateful for being spoiled like this by my grandmother. My wallet definitely feels sore after a fun day in a bookstore now that I have to pay for books myself, but they remain my favorite way to pass time while traveling. Sadly, getting a stack of books to bring with me isn’t always the wisest idea these days, especially when I have to keep in mind travel budgets and suitcase weight limits that always seem to be growing stricter and more expensive.

Luckily, since I was a child, books and reading have evolved along with me. Nothing will beat the smell of the pages of an old book, but I’ve grown to save that for nights at home and travel with usually just my phone, using an app called Libby. There’s something magical about being able to fold open a little screen and suddenly have thousands of stories at my fingertips. It reminds me a lot of the book I’m currently reading, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline where the main character has access to unimaginable amounts of media via a virtual world.

Libby is a library app that allows me to use my library card to browse and borrow ebooks and audiobooks from my local library, sending them straight to whatever device I’d like to read them on. It saves space in my bag, money on buying books (because, let’s face it, even ebooks can start to add up), and it feels great to support and use the local library in my area.

Since many new and popular books can have a waiting list, one tip I recommend is to try and put a hold on them as soon as you know you’ll be traveling, so hopefully, you’ll have them in time for your trip. However, you can always use the ‘available now’ filter to find titles you can download right away.

What have you all been reading lately? As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. If anyone has recommendations, I’d love to hear them. I’ve also been trying to use Goodreads more, so feel free to add me there! Check out Instagram later this week to see some of my top recommendations: Goodreads.com/PlanetaryAnecdotes.