Roaming & Reading  May 15th 2026

The Power of Anticipation. The Science of Prospection.

The breeze is fresh, rustling over reed-beds and open water.

Marshland birds chitter as the horizon blushes pink and gold with the rising sun.

I draw in a deep breath of cool, scented air, eager for the once in a lifetime experiences the next hours will bring.

My first time in Botswana's Okavango Delta will be in June of 2027 on a Siren Sojourn. But my prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobes are already whirring with the power of projection.

I'm summoning the most vivid images of a pre-dawn Delta safari to build a delightful sense of anticipation.

Neuroscientists describe it as our ability to "pre-experience" the future. And this "time travel" capability is one of the central things that set our brains apart from the brains of animals.

Think about it: Is there anything more enjoyable than anticipating the sounds and scents of that forest you'll hike through on your long-awaited summer vacation?

The joy you'll experience when you paddle your kayak on a still summer morning to the calls of loons?

The awe that will flood your senses when you watch a leopard drink from a flooded waterway at sunset?

Indeed, 2022 research titled, "Waiting for Merlot" published in Sage Journals argued that money spent on doing things tends to give us more long-lasting happiness than money spent on buying stuff.

But then, you knew that! You are a traveler, not a tourist.

The Moody Moors of "Jane Eyre"

There were a few things about Emerald Fennell's version of "Wuthering Heights" that made me squirm; (Heathcliff's long-suffering bride barking like a dog, for one).

But I relished the lightning-strewn, rain-driven, delicious cinematography of the West Yorkshire Moors.

The Bronte sisters described their beloved landscape as "brooding and desolate," yet brightened with "purple heather" and mists that were "pale" and enveloping.

Charlotte, grieving the deaths of her sisters Anne and Emily, wrote in a letter to a friend: "I am free to walk on the moors--but when I go out there alone everything reminds me of the time others were with me and then the moors seem a wilderness, featureless, solitary, saddening..."

We'll explore those wild, solitary and brooding moors together in May of 2027!

The Jane Eyre Adventure is sold out. But please drop me a quick line at SirenSojourns@gmail.com if you want to be added to the waiting list. https://www.sirensojourns.com/england

Read to Roam Book for May

Some novels create such an immersive geography that it activates the imagination far beyond what appears on the page.

When writer Tara Menon describes the underwater world that surrounds an island off the coast of Thailand, her language is both restrained and lush. –”The reef is busy with color,” she writes of this place. “...fiery scorpion fish, yellow frogfish, red snappers, white and orange clown fish, a shoal of electric-blue angelfish, fat black sea cucumbers, powder blue surgeonfish….Sand suspended beneath the dimpled surface glitters in the sunlight.”

Menon’s novel, "Under Water" unfolds in the years before and the months after the devastatingly destructive tsunami that engulfed Thailand in 2004. But the heartbeat of the story is the friendship between two girls…each negotiating a stinging loss.

"Since Arielle left me, I feel submerged. I can't find my way to the surface. I never went to grief counseling. But after I found Tennyson, I went searching for the rest of the literature of grief....." "Under Water" by Tara Menon.

Find my Big Books, Bold Ideas interview on the podcast from May 1.

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Questions About Reading?

I got an excellent question from a reader that I thought I'd share here. If you have a question about what to read and how to make your reading experience more enjoyable, I'm all ears! Send it to SirenSojourns@gmail.com.

Hi Kerri, Any suggestions to help me slow down while reading? I would like to learn to take my time and relax more while reading. Sometimes I feel like it’s more of a goal to finish the book I’m reading- even great books - than to really deeply enjoy the book. Maybe this is just who I am but I thought maybe you have encountered this type of question before. Chip

Here's how I answered Chip: A pleasure to weigh in on this. Thank you for your email.

I've experienced this too—a kind of ticking clock in my head even as I'm involved in the story, especially when I have a big stack of books to read for my work at MPR.

Here's what works for me: I put the iPhone in another room. I settle into a reading space that is quiet (uninterruptible) and I tell myself that I've given myself 60 to 90 minutes to read. That gives you a sense of expansiveness and calm and lets you fully engage with the ideas at the center of the book. And then I often take a walk to think about what I've read.

Let me know how it goes. And bravo! Too few people are reading anything!