Bondi Beach and the Joy of Reading

There’s nothing quite like stumbling upon a book while traveling.
On a recent trip to Bondi Beach, I wandered into a small old book café tucked away on a quiet street. The little signboard set out on the street looked charming, and when I stepped inside, the air was filled with the comforting scent of aged paper mingled with freshly brewed coffee.

Sinking into the coziest armchair in the café and  I gazed at the shelves, a book on the history of surfing caught my eye. Its pages revealed stories of people who challenged the waves, along with photographs of iconic coastline. It’s the kind of book I probably wouldn’t have picked up at local bookstore, but somehow, in this place, it felt like the perfect choice.

Books you read while traveling can feel strangely dull once you bring them back home. Somehow, the magic only appears when the book and the place are tied together, as if the setting itself breathes life into the pages.

Travel isn’t just about ticking off landmarks.
Sometimes, the greatest joy lies in finding a book by chance, and taking the time to lose yourself in it—right there, in the place where you found it.