Airplane Reading

[qos]

The flight from Seattle-Tacoma to Miami has got to be one of the longest possible flights in the US. And have I mentioned that I hate flying?

I'm sure that kateri_thinks and I are going to have a lot to talk about, but I don't think we want to try to amuse each other for the entire length of the flight.

So: what book(s) would you recommend for airplane reading? And those times when I will need to hang out by myself in my spacious suite (because we introverts go bonkers doing group stuff all day every day).

I'd like something thick enough to keep me engaged for a while, with great characters and a juicy plot. I'm leaning toward fiction, but really engaging non-fiction would work too.

shimmeringjemmy gave The Red Tent a good review yesterday, so that's on my list.

Anyone else? Historical fiction is my current favorite genre, but I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy too. But I'll pick up just about anything.


[And I don't know if anyone even noticed yesterday, but I can't remember another time I used "giggly" for my emoticon, much less twice in a row!)

Comments

[professor-mom.livejournal.com]

The Birth of Venus by Sarah DUnant is a way cool piece of historical fiction. Have you read that? You might like it.

Other than that, there's a new Neale Donald Walsch book out "Home With God." And I'm starting to groove on the Byron Katie book "Loving What is."

[iswari.livejournal.com]

You haven't read The Red Tent?!??? Some of it was a little slow, but....I LOVED IT! =)

Also, Chitra Divakaruni's Sister of My Heart is fantastic. =)

[rachel-y.livejournal.com]

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. It's the first in a series of (currently) six books. Historical fiction with some romance and fantasy (in the form of time-travel) thrown in. Highly recommended.

[toesontheground.livejournal.com]

A non fiction suggestion is Guns, Germs, & Steel (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393317552/104-8586674-1299955?v=glance&n=283155) by Jared Diamond. Reasonably easy read, while being informative, thought provoking and fascinating.

because we introverts go bonkers doing group stuff all day every day
Amen! :,)

[queenofhalves]

i have not yet read this, but it is frequently recommended to me by people i respect too.

e-books for iPod

[athenian-abroad.livejournal.com]

You might consider an e-book or two...they are especially handy for travel. Since you're probably going to take your iPod with you anyway, you can carry a few (or a few dozen!) e-books with zero added weight or bulk.

The folks at manybooks.net have started carrying iPod-compatible free e-books.

You might enjoy William James's Varieties of Religious Experience, if you haven't read it already.

Re: e-books for iPod

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation, but somehow I just don't consider The Variety of Religious Experience vacation reading. (!!)

And my iPod is one of the older styles, with a small screen. But I might get something for my Palm.

And I might upgrade my Palm before I go. . .

[princesca.livejournal.com]

Waking the Moon, by Elizabeth Hand. >:)

One reader wrote: "Mixed in with this hypnotically written story is a political battle between the Matriarchy (represented by Angelica) and the Patriarchy (the secret society); between the Goddess and the world that has ignored her for millennia. One of the best touches of Hand's book is that she doesn't really take sides, except maybe to hint that the fault of both philosophies is the extremes they go to. Even when Sweeney makes her decision at the end, she makes it for personal reasons and not because she agrees with either side. This was the book that got me investigating Goddess mythology several years ago, and it's also a fever-dream of a story, with a sympathetic heroine and a unique style. I've read it a gazillion times."

[qos.livejournal.com]

I read this one several years ago (at the beach, in fact). . . I remember that I found it kind of disturbing in the end, but the story is a blank for me.