A book was waiting for me, one that had been in my holds queue for a few weeks. Entering the library on a chilly January afternoon, I decided to stay a while and browse the new nonfiction.

New nonfiction is a relative term at the Reston branch of the Fairfax County Library. But the books are free, so I knew I’d find something of interest — and I did. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thomson, was published a year ago and has been tempting me ever since. I’ll plunge into that soon.

But more attuned to the tenor of the times (these first days of 2026, that is) was finding a new edition of Backroads and Byways of Virginia. It’s full of journeys through the commonwealth, from the Great Dismal Swamp to Grayson Highlands.

Is it just what happens to wanderlust when it’s bottled up for a few weeks, or some other impulse … but I want to take every one of these trips! To explore Route 11, the “Valley Pike,” hop a mail boat to Tangier Island, and maybe, finally, visit Appomattox Courthouse.

I’ve lived in Virginia for decades, but have barely explored it. Time to change that.

(A byway near Woodstock.)