Recently I heard several people planning the same trip that I myself was planning to the same destination (and from different places), and realized how peculiar my habit must be. Perhaps like many other people they decided to travel together in order to kill what they may perceive as the boredom of solitude. This gave me a chance to reevaluate why I enjoy reading or listening to books while traveling.
There are two occasions when I prefer being - or have to be - alone. One is when I visit a bookstore, and the other is while traveling, even for half an hour within the city - all the more so when I travel to another city within the country or abroad.
I spend this precious time in solitude - and in motion - reading or listening to books. Solitude and motion together with time-boundedness make any trip a perfect occasion for this. I'm not interrupted by others, my work, or, hopefully, worries, and the constant tiny movement of the body in a bus, train or plane helps me absorb what I read or listen to.
All in all, this experience gives me an enormous joy that I'm not ready to sacrifice in exchange for small talk that often leads nowhere and leaves me with the loss of something precious – time.
Especially because I now live in a very rural place, many people ask me if I have a driver's license. When I say no, they wonder how I survive, and some of them even look at me with pity. But in a sense I also feel pity for drivers.
It's true that if you drive a car, you may often be able to reach your destination faster, especially within the city, as you don't have to wait. But what do you do when you drive? Preferably nothing but focus on driving.
So I feel that by driving your own car, you may have more to lose than to gain. I also know that many people who shorten their travel time by driving their own car don't always use wisely the time they save.
But please don't misunderstand me. I'm not a misanthrope. On the contrary. I enjoy interacting both verbally and nonverbally not only with fellow humans but also with animals and even plants. Just not while traveling.
So while traveling I also watch other humans from time to time. I often find other humans no less interesting than books. When I still lived in Jerusalem, I used to tell my friends abroad that I felt no need to visit a zoo, as I lived in a huge zoo. ;-)
I especially enjoy watching what other passengers read while traveling, if at all. Several times I have started a conversation - and a fascinating one at that - when another passenger noticed what I was reading, or when I noticed what they were reading. On a few occasions these conversations even led to friendships with fellow book lovers!