What should I read on the plane?

[Sweet Freedom]

I'm traveling this week and have a solid day-and-a-half of travel time. I'd like to read something light and perhaps amusing. Nothing heavy or political/religious. Any suggestions?

Thanks! :hi:

[AsahinaKimi]

1. Read

The Princess Bride, you will love it! It had me laughing for hours on end. It was far better then the Movie.

[muffin1]

2. David Sedaris is always fun!

:)

[hippywife]

3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Many of us in the Fiction Group here at DU have simply eaten it up. :hi:

I also second Sedaris but only if you can take it in audio format. Unless he's the one reading it aloud, it loses something magical.

[Taitertots]

4. Nudge

or maybe "Predictably Irrational"

[Bucky]

5. Trick question: you should read IN the plane. Otherwise you're too busy holding on to read.

They aren't reading

[kentauros]

6. You mean you don't want to watch Airplane! over and over?

:P

[MrScorpio]

7. A classic

[JTG of the PRB]

8. SkyMall.

Tell me if the 2010 shiatsu massager/wine opener/sock darner is in yet!

[pokerfan]

9. Airframe by Michael Crichton

Terror fills the skies in Michael Crichton’s Airframe, when TransPacific Flight 525 suddenly “porpoises” while in flight from China to the US. Without warning, the Norton Aircraft N-22 brutally pitches and yaws through thousands of feet, killing several passengers and perhaps the future of Norton Aircraft. But what caused the deadly mishap? Was it counterfeit parts, as claimed by Norton’s finger-pointing president? Did the bizarre accident betray a concealed design flaw? In the ensuing days of chaos, Norton Quality Control VP Casey Singleton struggles to find the answer before an international conspiracy discredits the N-22 and unscrupulous news anchors air a lie that will bury the company. And she must do so while being set-up on the inside to take a fall by the very corporation she so desperately wants to save.

[SoxFan]

14. I almost took the 9/11 Commission Report on a flight

Decided that it wasn't worth the inevitable hassle.

[pokerfan]

19. I read Airframe on a cross-country flight

I remember one of the flight attendants commenting how much she loved it. :rofl:

But even as he spoke, the plane seemed to shudder, the nose of the plane turning down. Suddenly everything tilted at a crazy angle. Emily felt Sarah sliding forward off her lap. She clutched at her daughter, pulling her close. Now it felt like the plane was going straight down, and then suddenly it was going up, and her stomach was pressed into the seat. Her daughter was a lead weight against her. Tim said, "What the hell?'

Abruptly she was lifted off the seat, her seat belt cutting into her thighs. She felt light and sick to her stomach. She saw Tim bounce out of his seat, his head slamming into the luggage compartments overhead, the camera flying past her face. From the cockpit, Emily heard buzzing, insistent alarms and a metallic voice that said, "Stall! Stall!" She glimpsed the blue-suited arms of the pilots moving swiftly over the controls; they were shouting in Chinese. All over the aircraft, people were screaming, hysterical. There was the sound of shattering glass.

The plane went into another steep dive. An elderly Chinese woman slid down the aisle on her back, screaming. A teenage boy followed, tumbling head over heels. Emily looked at Tim, but her husband wasn't in his seat any more. Yellow oxygen masks were dropping, one swinging in front of her face, but she could not reach for it because she was clutching her baby. She was pressed back into her seat as the plane descended steeply, an incredibly loud whining dive. Shoes and purses ricocheted across the cabin, clanging and banging; bodies thumped against seats, the floor.

Tim was gone. Emily turned, looking for him, and suddenly a heavy bag struck her in the head--a sudden jolt, pain, blackness, and stars. She felt dizzy and faint. The alarms continued to sound. The passengers continued to scream. The plane was still in a dive. Emily lowered her head, clutched her infant daughter to her chest, and for the first time in her life, began to pray.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. What do you LIKE to read?

Get some of that.

[Drunken Irishman]

11. Alive.

[Duer 157099]

12. Anything by Bill Bryson

Perhaps In A Sunburned Country. Or any of his books really. Trust me.

[Highway61]

20. A Walk in the Woods

was my favorite. Great suggestion.

[Sweet Freedom]

13. Thanks for all the great suggestions!

I'm going to skip all the airplane-related stories. :)

[SoxFan]

15. Anything by Mary Roach

Informative, but funny in a dry and off-kilter.

Stiff: Explores the world of dead bodies and cadavers.

Bonk: The science of sex, including a disastrous attempt by Mary and her husband to do the horizontal mambo in an imaging tube.

Spook: The afterlife, spiritualism, and assorted spookines.

[Ikonoklast]

16. Good fun shall be had by all.

[Skittles]

17. I dropped my paperback book when the plane took off

I simply could NOT reach where it slid behind me under the seat - had to ask a very lanky gentleman behind me for assistance - that poor thing contorted like a pretzel but was able to push it forward to me....after which he announced, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN....SECURE YOUR BOOKS!". Damn, I can't remember what I was reading though. :D

[pitohui]

18. i always get paperback thrillers from the 25 cent and free table

if it's an all day travel day by plane, with all the waiting here and there, i usually go thru three books, and i leave them as i go for the next traveler, so i generally like cheap ones

james patterson, michael connolly, many other series authors, you don't really have to read them in order to enjoy the mystery -- the more "popular" ones are the most likely ones to be given away cheap/free at our library and used book stores because they're the paperbacks that become overstocked first

really though i just look for anything in the genres i like -- i try to avoid romance and most romantic suspense -- and even if one book is not all that, it's gotta be better than trying to watch a miserable airplane movie on a tiny screen that keeps getting interrupted by people getting up and/or pilot making announcements, or endless viewings of fox or cnn in the gate area...

oh, and there's "light" and there's "light" -- don't get something so light that you're bored to tears by the awfulness of the story, "the cat who" book lady and also ted bell spring to mind -- some books are just so terrible that it's baffling how they got published at all

don't know if it's in paperback yet but from the library i just got "the brass verdict" where connolly puts together the bosch and haller characters together on the same case -- it's not v. deep but it's entertaining and fast paced

[GoneOffShore]

21. Sweet Life in Paris - David Leibowitz

Fun and recipes.

[rug]

22. The Koran.

In the original.