Fear of Flying: or How To Choose Appropriate Airplane Reading

I'm not going to pretend that I buy actual books in the airport bookstore anymore; I'm generally so behind in my reading that I like to cart around several pounds of the guiltily unread. In fact, I still overspend at the newsstand on trashy magazines that will show me what the well dressed celebutante* is wearing (or...er...not wearing) this season. But I used to have a Higgins Clark (both Mary and Carol) addiction, stoked by the shiny covers glinting at the local airport bookstore. (Bonus reading: here's an interesting theory on why it's hard to bring yourself to crack open "War and Peace" on a plane.) How to choose, though? Stanley Fish has the answer, in a recent New York Times column he outlines a real strategy for choosing the right mystery book to keep you occupied on your next trip. How do you choose your airplane reading?

*A note about celebutantes: there is, following a cursory search, literally nothing** I can link to involving Paris Hilton that does not take the reader to material that would tar the reputation of this blog, and thereby NPR, forever.

**Including her Wikipedia entry.

 

Comments (Send a comment)

How about this story from the Associated Press, about their experiment to stop covering Paris Hilton?

Sent by andy carvin | 3:15 PM ET | 03-29-2007

My never miss for an excellent book is to see if blurb has starred review or positive comments from Publishers Weekly. Almost always on the money, especially when looking for new author. I have shared this with other friends and have gotten good feedback.

Sent by Joanie | 3:52 PM ET | 03-29-2007

You wouldn't name a heroine Brianne? Mr. Fish, you can't judge a person by her name just like you can't judge a book by its first sentence.

Sent by Brianne | 4:04 PM ET | 03-29-2007

I read on the plane the same stuff I read on my Express Bus commute every day--science fiction and fantasy. Crammed into an airplane seat, waiting for connections, getting upset at delays in the airport, on the tarmac and in the air, escaping ordinary reality is key.

Preferably, its a long enough book that I can either finish it on one trip, or on one leg of a trip. Finishing a book midflight snaps me back to the banal realities of air travel, and this is a bad thing.

Sent by Paul Weimer | 7:44 AM ET | 03-30-2007

Forward-leaning.
It's how we walk.
It's Fish talk.
It's Hemingway over
Faulkner any damn day

Sent by Wiley Akers | 5:16 PM ET | 04-02-2007

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