# Recommend a book for a long plane flight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497 "2005-12-13T22:20:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/1 "2005-12-13T22:20:46Z")
Millions, I’ve got a cross-Atlantic flight a-coming and I need a book recommendation. Yes, yes, I always come crawling to you guys for literary wisdom, but so far I’ve discovered Terry Pratchet, rediscovered PG Woodehouse, and was recommended Chris Buckley, who remains solidly in my favorite author list. So far, so perfect. In fact, I’m again looking for something in the above vein. Something fun, not necessarily brain-less (see above) and, preferably looooong. Something I can enjoy on a half day of travel to lands where I speak only bastardized versions of their languages. Currently, I’m thinking of getting a nice thick Neil Simon volume with about 6 plays in it. But I’d rather a nice juicy novel. It doesn’t have to funny, but, you know, nothing Russian. This is a vacation. And I just finished Good Omens, so you can’t go there. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/2 "2005-12-13T22:25:43Z")
Damn, I sometimes go months without recommending what is IMHO the funniest book ever written – here’s my second chance today. Richard Russo’s [_Straight Man_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375701907/ref=pd_kar/103-9345732-5432606?n=283155). Don’t get if you’d be self-conscious about people staring at you because you’re giggling uncontrollably while you read. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/3 "2005-12-13T22:43:59Z")
I asked my brain for something long, not brainless, and fun, and these are the two titles it came up with. (Why these two in particular? I don’t know—ask my brain.) [Handling Sin](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570717567/qid=1134513581/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2808579-4178405?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) by Michael Malone [The Salterton Trilogy](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014015910X/qid=1134513653/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2808579-4178405?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) by Robertson Davies (actually three novels, but you can get them in one volume) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/4 "2005-12-13T22:47:35Z")
My last trip – to Vancouver and back was by ship and rail respectively, so I know from long journeys. I had John Updike’s [Rabbit](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/102-3360584-6023334?url=index%3Dblended&field-keywords=Updike+Rabbit) novels (the first three in one volume) and found it to be a very worthy traveling book. If you buy one of the novels singly you should start with _Rabbit, Run_ since that’s the first one. One nice thing about it was that I didn’t feel my vacation was quite over until I got to the end of the third novel. When in a confined space like a plane I find I also need a couple pieces of alternative reading matter as well, though on the cruise I didn’t really need to because there was so much else to do. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/5 "2005-12-13T23:05:33Z")
Those all look good. Straight Man’s already on my short list & Handling Sin looks like the exact sort of thing I asked for. Think it’s readily available. Salterton Trilogy seems intriguing, mainly because of Thudlow’s description. As for the Rabbit novels, I’ve read most of them and have nothing bad to say. Updike walks that line between enjoyable and meaningful as well as anyone I can think of, with the exception of Flannery O’Connor, who I’ve cannonized in my personal literary universe. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/6 "2005-12-13T23:14:19Z")
Anything at all by Neal Stephenson. _Snow Crash_ is a present day alternate history cyberthriller. _Cryptonomicon_ is … a genre unto itself, I think. It follows a present day and WWII storyline, and it revolves around the cryptography that both sets of characters (some family connections) use. _Quicksilver_, the first in the Baroque Trilogy (all of which is available), takes place in the 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe, and a bit in Massachusetts too. It’s … astoundingly good. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/7 "2005-12-13T23:22:38Z")
We read a book, it may have been this one, when some friends and I flew to Barcelona for a long weekend. It was essentially a transcription of the final moments recorded on the flight data recorders and short investigation into the accidents mentioned. If that doesn’t float your boat then maybe “Alive”. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/8 "2005-12-13T23:31:57Z")
ShibbOleth: Link’s no good. Birdmonster’s curious. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/9 "2005-12-13T23:48:10Z")
Ken Follets: [The pillars of the earth.](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451166892/qid=1134517393/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9086593-8432843?n=507846&s=books&v=glance) Long, and just plain effing good storytelling. Spans fifty years and the building of one big cathedral in medieval England. Not big on lighthearted fun, but it was one of those rare books that held me in a sort of time-warp: when I looked up from the pages again, it was three hours later. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/10 "2005-12-13T23:50:31Z")
> [@Birdmonster](#): > > ShibbOleth: Link’s no good. Birdmonster’s curious. Sorry, multitasking is no good when trying to post links. I accidentally posted the link into an ICQ chat with a colleague. Second try: [The Black Box](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688158927/103-5300376-3356612?v=glance&n=283155). ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/11 "2005-12-14T02:56:37Z")
I quite enjoyed _Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell_ which is a pretty hefty volume. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/12 "2005-12-14T03:44:35Z")
I noticed you read Good Omens. Perhaps Neil Gaiman’s\*\* American God\*\*s or his newest, **Anansi Boys**. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/13 "2005-12-14T03:45:56Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Damn, I sometimes go months without recommending what is IMHO the funniest book ever written – here’s my second chance today. > > Richard Russo’s [_Straight Man_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375701907/ref=pd_kar/103-9345732-5432606?n=283155). > > Don’t get if you’d be self-conscious about people staring at you because you’re giggling uncontrollably while you read. That’s a great recommendation. It’s a wonderful book. I read it based on a funniest book thread and laughed out loud through the whole thing – on a plane. No one turned around and glared at me though. I was sitting right over the wing, so no one heard a thing. Another great air travel book, if you like fantasy is Ursula Le Guin’s [_Changing Planes_](http://a1204.g.akamai.net/7/1204/1401/05031712011/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/9230000/9230162.jpg). It’s about other worlds that are found and can only be revisited through the discomfort of air travel. It’s funnier and a bit more satirical than most of the other books of hers I’ve read. I’m going to reread it the next time I have to fly. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/14 "2005-12-14T03:47:53Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I quite enjoyed _Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell_ which is a pretty hefty volume. I loved this also, but you should read a chapter or two before you take off with it as your only reading material – some people can’t get into the very leisurely pace and stylized prose, uh, style. ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/15 "2005-12-14T03:52:44Z")
_I am Charlotte Simmons_, by Tom Wolfe. If you choose it, you might want to look at some of the reviews on Amazon. I think the readers who didn’t like it were looking for something other than fun fiction, like some kind of intellectual social commentary, or a historically acurate account of college life today. Not the point of the novel at all. Tom Wolfe always (in his three novels at least) uses lots of exagerration to entertain. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/16 "2005-12-14T05:15:04Z")
I read \*\*Shogun \*\*on a trans Atlantic flight, never had a better time. Fun, inoffensively historically inaccurate, and loooooooong. But I have to say it was a page turner. I would put it in the same category as **Pillars of the Earth** , which was already recommended. Solid storytelling for a thousand plus pages. The flight will feel about 5 minutes long. Or, if you are into Fantasy, go for a portion of the **Song of Ice and Fire**. Take all 4 in the series, read the first 2 on the flight over and the last…um well 1 and a quarter on the way back. Then finish the last one and wait 4 years for the next book. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/17 "2005-12-14T05:20:15Z")
> [@Spatial Rift 47](#): > > _Cryptonomicon_ is … a genre unto itself, I think. It follows a present day and WWII storyline, and it revolves around the cryptography that both sets of characters (some family connections) use. I second this. I read _Cryptonomicon_ on a flight from Boston to Osaka and it took up most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/18 "2005-12-14T05:51:51Z")
> [@brightpenny](#): > > I noticed you read Good Omens. Perhaps Neil Gaiman’s\*\* American God\*\*s or his newest, **Anansi Boys**. I second both these suggestions, with the added endorsement that I finished Anansi Boys three days ago, had a ball reading it, and managed the trick in four hours. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/19 "2005-12-14T13:48:40Z")
Last time I flew, I picked up [Wicked](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060987103/qid=1134567833/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-4671823-3500726?n=507846&s=books&v=glance). I was flying to my hometown for the first time in 15 years, and I found it difficult to pay attention to my family and not hole up and finish this book. It’s the story of Oz from the Wicked Witch’s perspective. The other books by the same author, a retelling of Cinderella and Snow White, are also good but not quite the page-turner Wicked is. And you can’t miss with anything by [Christopher Moore](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=br_ss_hs/104-4671823-3500726?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dstripbooks%3Arelevance-above%26dispatch%3Dsearch%26results-process%3Dbin&field-keywords=christopher+moore) - light, funny reads great for traveling. I’ve read them all at least twice. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497/20 "2005-12-14T14:00:58Z")
I read **Haruki Murakami’s** _The Wind-up Bird Chronicle_ on a trans-atlantic flight, and really enjoyed it. I basically walked into the bookshop and asked for something over 700 pages, knowing I wanted something to keep me occupied on a 10hour flight…you might want something shorter and less whimsically japanese. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-for-a-long-plane-flight/335497.md?page=2)