I never even looked out the window of the car, being so intent on the book I was reading.

You could read in the car? That was the one place where I was not allowed to read, largely because it always made me carsick. (Still does, in fact.)

Heh. I had a similar experience: my mother was bragging to her uncle that I was already reading at age 3. He figured I'd probably just memorized the stories they'd read to me hundreds of times, so he sat me down with the newspaper and asked me to read it to him. So I did.

3? Damn, and my mom brags that I was reading the newspaper at 7.

You could read in the car?

Yeah, I've never had a problem with it, luckily. How else do you survive long road trips? When I was in Australia last year and I was planning on taking the train from Perth to Melbourne--a 3-day trip--I went out a few weeks before I left and bought myself several books I was really looking forward to reading, and didn't let myself start them until I was on the train. That way, I was actually looking forward to the trip instead of dreading it.

Kate P. is totally me. Except for me, it's the Pre-Drive Trip to the Library.

I never had any motion sickness as a kid (and a good thing too, because 18-hour car trips were an annual thing in my family), but somewhere in adolescence, my inner ears became absurdly oversensitive. Now, if I take half a Dramamine, I can read on a train (or in a car, but these days, if I'm in a car, I'm usually driving).

Oh man, I'm remembering summers when I was in my pre-teen years. My 3 sisters (all younger) and I would be home alone and more often than not we'd all wind up in the living room, sprawled on the furniture, still in pjs, each us us with a book in her hand. It was one of those things where you're so comfortable and into your book that you forget there are other people around but at the same time I still knew they were there. I remember so much closeness even though we didn't talk at all. I can't quite find the words, but it was very special. We don't all get along that well anymore. Oh, nostalgia.

I used to be able to read in the car. Then I learned how to drive. And then my inner control freak kicked in.

Pity -- reading made that long drive from NC to MI a lot more bearable. Now I just sit there on the mountainy bits kicking the imaginary driver's side foot brake and saying, "Dad, I'm ready to help out with the driving now. Really."

When I was in Australia last year and I was planning on taking the train from Perth to Melbourne--a 3-day trip--I went out a few weeks before I left and bought myself several books I was really looking forward to reading, and didn't let myself start them until I was on the train. That way, I was actually looking forward to the trip instead of dreading it.

I would love to make the train ride from Melbourne to Perth. (Books would indeed figure in the equation, but, Nullarbor. Arbor? Completely null. I'd like to see it.)

How else do you survive long road trips?

In my experience, you memorize the lyrics to every song on the radio, play License Plate Bingo, look for the alphabet on signs, nap and bicker with your brother.

Mostly, it's the bickering.

(It's worth pointing out that my family rarely went on mega-long car trips; usually we vacationed four hours from home or less. Of course, when you're eight, four hours is a lifetime.)

ETA: I've never had a problem with reading on trains or planes.

I would love to make the train ride from Melbourne to Perth.

billytea, I bet you'd enjoy it. I saw the most beautiful sunset of my life on the Nullarbor Plain. (Also passed through the town of Forest, which cracked me up.) It's really gorgeous country, if you like sparse, big-sky country, anyway.