Welcome! 

I’m Whitney. I love to travel. I also love to read. While traveling, I decided, why not combine the two by reading books about, and by writers from, the place I’m headed? This way I learn a lot more about the places I visit and this in turn makes my travels more meaningful. 

Though I know there are many others who share my interests, among the countless travel blogs out there I haven’t seen any that combine travel with books, so I decided to fill that gap.

I’ve never had a corporate job and I’m not a digital nomad. I have a day job and a home in Osaka, Japan. I have a graduate degree in literature and was lucky enough to turn my dream of being a writer into my actual job title. 

Though I often travel solo, sometimes I travel with my partner, and occasionally I travel with my sister, my mom, or a friend. 

I have lived in 5 countries: I’m from Michigan in the US, I have studied in both Germany and Scotland, and have worked in both Austria and Japan. I have also visited more than 30 countries, but I don’t want to base my travels on country-collecting and “Instagrammability”. Instead, I’m trying to practice slower, intentional, ethical travel by focusing on the places I have a genuine interest in experiencing and getting to know those places and cultures better. I’ve accepted that I can’t go everywhere (as is the case with most people), so my time would be better spent prioritizing where I actually want to go myself, not just where others go. 

Many of the places I want to travel are where my friends come from or where they have spent a significant period of their lives. The other factors that spark my interest are fairly typical: the landscape, the food, the history and culture, and of course the literature!

I hope I can give others ideas about what to read during their travels, and perhaps help others decide which places they really want to prioritize visiting 🙂 📚