Hope some of these books are the things you own at home but have not yet started using them. If so, then maybe it’s time. All of them are accessible via ebook, and some can even be downloaded for free as they are already classics. But, if you do not dare with the book, or cannot access it, some of the recommendations also come with a film. So we hope that, in one way or another, this post can help you escape.

Since we are limited to our home and traveling is still discouraged, we can still enjoy traveling even in our imagination while reading these books.

1. At home. A Brief History of Private Life (Bill Bryson)

Since we are confined to our homes, why not start with a journey through our own homes. In this entertaining and fun popular book (like all of Bryson’s, generally the author of travel books), the writer shows us in a very light way, but with a great investigation behind, the history of what our houses are like and why they are as they are now. Starting from his, a former rectory in Norfolk, he takes us on a tour of all the rooms: kitchen, bedrooms, dining room, pantry, etc. But he does not forget his everyday objects: beds, cutlery, toilets, he even relates them to pandemics and how they influenced architecture. If you haven’t read Bryson yet, you’re already taking time. A writer with whom they will laugh at some point. You can download it online.

2. Trapped in the Ice (Caroline Alexander)

From our houses to the Antarctic ice. You must have heard of the Irish explorer Shackelton. Yes, the one who put that famous advertisement in the English press to get volunteers for his trip to the ice of Antarctica.

Well, although it seems that the announcement is a myth, the start of the adventure is unbeatable. In this book, Alexander tells us what is already a milestone of self-improvement, courage, organization, and survival. A story that can help us to distance ourselves from the difficulties we suffer now. It begins with the attempt in 1914 to cross Antarctica from part to part and on foot, almost 3,000 km. She is followed by a shipwreck at the start and then the entire crew’s struggle for survival for almost three years. Hikes, dragging boats at -30º, sailing, climbing … Nobody went looking for them, they were the ones who succeeded thanks to their efforts, Shackelton’s leadership, and, also, luck. No one died. There is also a great documentary published online..

3. Wild (Cheryl Strayed)

You will never be the child your parents imagined. Thousands of miles of pages have been written. This book talks about miles on foot and parental relationships. Of a trauma not overcome, or, rather, to be overcome, of a daughter before the death of her young mother from cancer. A maternal figure that grows in the memory of the author.

But this book will also make us travel. We accompany the author, Cheryl Strayed, who in an autobiographical way recounts the adventure that she began in 1995. After a time of lack of control and disorientation, she one day decides to turn her life upside down. With no experience in the mountains, she sets out on the Pacific Crest Trail with a huge backpack full of things. Gradually you will find that almost everything is useless, but you have to wear them (because many of us will associate things at home.) If you are a tourist, if you like mountains, you will like them. Attracted by the survival story, you will fall in love with it without disappointment.

In these times of forced confinement, going for a walk, even in a figurative way, can help us see our situation differently. After all, we will walk with Strayed, but from the armchair of our house.

Classic books to deal with confinement during the coronavirus

The next two books are classics because, during the coronavirus pandemic, we cannot buy from bookstores or retrieve books from the library, they may be in your home and prevent you from reading for some reason. …You stop here. Now is a good opportunity to try those books that have been looking at us from our bookstores for years. The thick ones, the classics of world literature that have given us a little respect, those that we sometimes talk about, and even give our opinions without having read them.

4. The Manso Friend (Benito Pérez Galdós)

Now that the centenary of the death of Galdós is fulfilled, this quarantine is as good an occasion as another to read something of his. From Ayuda en Acción we recommend this book that, perhaps it is not one of the most read or known but that will surprise you. “I do not exist…”. This is how the story begins and that is, who is Manso? It can be downloaded free of charge from the internet. Take advantage in any case, choose any of Galdós, because this year is waiting for you.

5. Far from the madding crowd (Thomas Hardy)

A humble young woman receives an inheritance and becomes the owner of a large estate in the second half of the 19th century in England. She is not an ordinary woman for the time and three men (a landowner, a young soldier, and one of his employees) dispute the love of the protagonist. Quite a novel. We also recommend the 2015 Thomas Vinterberg movie which can be found on various platforms.

And so far the recommendations for this forced seclusion. We hope that some of the suggestions have been useful to you and how it could be otherwise!

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