In many travellers, there’s a conception of travel that recreates it as an instance of personal finding. Everything we’ll see in a destination is part of a search process that should exclusively take place there, in the interaction with local people and our walks and strolls around the place.

While it sounds attractive, I tend to take distance from this “finding” concept that wants to surround the traveller’s concept. Rather, I’m one of those who think bookstores are one of the first destinations one should visit when first arriving to a city. What for? To see what books are available about the destination we’re visiting, to obtain maps, and eventually, to check out some guides that might help us build our trip.

The research stage is a basic one; I know some people will find it boring to stare at travel guides, maps, and other references. But, at least in my case, it’s part of a fascinating process that is accessing to the representations of a place. That is, what things are usually remarked from a specific destination. Of course, later, it’s good to step out of that representation, get lost on the streets, find places that don’t figure in guides. But I don’t believe this process is independent of other sources. The finding takes place from the knowledge we have from these places.

In the case of my last trip, my two hour stay at Saraiva bookstore, at Barra shopping in Barra da Tijuca, was an interesting time to see what had been edited about Rio de Janeiro. In two really big shelves about tourism, I found from the traditional guides to helpbooks for foreigners in Rio, streets guides, city maps, photo books, and several more interesting sources. Furthermore than my personal taste for visiting bookstores, an activity I love, this visit gave me a wider perspective of Rio as a representation object, as a destination to get to know.

Really, travels begin with books, and then their texts meet our own experiences. Wether those who say travel is only our own findings like it or not.