How to fulfill your dream to travel the world? Crack open a library of books.
You grow when you expand your horizons and visit the many worlds real and imaginary that reside in books. If you need encouragement to read your way around the globe check out Jeremy Anderberberg’s Reading as Traveling. And Gabi, Bit & Pieces Travel Blog says. “Reading is a primal way of traveling. My belief is that as soon as we start reading our travel begins.
Pick up your world tour ticket here.
Get ready and hop on the 50-state book tour to New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Ohio.
New York
What’ unique about this state?
- The first American chess tournament was held in New York in 1843.
- The 641-mile transportation network known as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway is the longest toll road in the United States.
- A brewer named Matthew Vassar founded Vassar College in Poughkeepsie in 1861.
New York’s best read is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his new love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s
North Carolina
What’s unique about this state
- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the oldest State University in the United States.
- In 1903 the Wright Brothers made the first successful powered flight by man at Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk. The Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawks now commemorates their achievement.
- The Outer Banks of NC hosts some of the most beautiful beaches in the country.
North Carolina’s best read is The Notebook (The Notebook #1) by Nicholas Sparks
Set amid the austere beauty of the North Carolina coast, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner recently returned from the Second World War. Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other.
North Dakota
What’s unique about this state?
- The town of Rugby is the geographical center of North America. A rock obelisk about 15 feet tall, flanked by poles flying the United States and Canadian flags marks the location.
- Westhope located on U.S. Highway 83 is a Port-of-Entry into Canada. Each year more than 72,000 vehicles cross the border at this point.
- Petroglyphs carved into two granite boulders give Writing Rock State Historic Site near Grenora its name. Though their origins are obscure, the drawings probably represent the Thunderbird, a mythological figure sacred to Late Prehistoric Plains Indians. Outlines of the bird, showing its wings extended and surrounded by abstract designs, appear on both boulders.
North Dakota’s best read is The Round House by Louise Erdrich
One of the most revered novelists of our time – a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life – Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota.
Ohio
What’s unique about this state?
- The first ambulance service was established in Cincinnati in 1865.
- Cleveland boasts America’s first traffic light. It began on Aug. 5, 1914.
- Ermal Fraze invented the pop-top can in Kettering.
Ohio’s best read is The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio.
