I just finished The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and really enjoyed it. A time travel romance/drama; very powerful and thought-provoking.
My two favorite Stephen King books are Salem’s Lot (vampires in a small Maine town) and Misery (a famous author is held captive by his unhinged and deeply scary “number one fan”). Both very different but very readable.
Other than his A Song of Ice and Fire series, my favorite George R.R. Martin book is Tuf Voyaging, a collection of interrelated short stories about a down-at-his-heels space merchant who unexpectedly finds himself master of an extremely powerful military starship, and decides to go into business solving planetary crises - usually on his own terms. A wonderful mix of satire, SF, political commentary and ecological cautionary tales.
The Swarm by Frank Schätzing should keep you from wanting to make a crash dive in the ocean . . . (Thick tome, at the same time interesting, creepy and hilarious)
The Dark Tower by Stephen King should keep you fed with words for a few months.
If you need something Sci-Fi, there’s always Peter F. Hamilton’s Pandora’s Star / Judas Unchained books. Well worth reading - great, actually.
My local bookstore had a somewhat limited selection, and seems to have a positive aversion to getting the first book of the series, or the first book an author writes.
After reading blurbs and weighing the available choices, I wound up getting Bartimaeus and a Robert Littell. I read them both on the flight (It makes you realize how big Canada is, when you can read two books, a magazine, watch a movie and have a nap while crossing it. ) and enjoyed them both very much. Now that I’m in a bigger city, with more bookstores, I’ll keep the rest of the suggestions for later.
Glad you got something to keep you going. It sucks when you are stuck on a flight with nothing to read - that’s why I pretty much weigh the book, check the margin size, font size etc. before making a decision.
The only one they had was Walking Back the Cat which sounds like a Dopername. I’m going to go by the library soon, since my kids tell me it looks like a greek temple, so I may get The Company then.