Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy starting with The Amulet of Samarkand.
*The Road * was a 2-hour read for me, so not great for a long flight.
Many years ago I read Keri Hulme’s The Bone People on a flight from Israel to DC.
Sometimes, when traveling, I prefer a book of short stories rather than a novel. I highly recommend the short stories of Jeffrey Archer, who is a master of tales with a “twist.” Archer has several story collections out. This is one of the best, IMHO.
Oooh. Great rec. Highly underrated books in my opinion.
So far The Devil in the Dust by Chaz Brenchley is coming out ok. What about All Creature Great and Small (the first in the series, despite the order of the hymn’s verses) by James Herriot? Mr. Herriot’s tales are abosorbing. Or Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, the first one is Wizard’s First Rule. Also, Lythande, and The Gratitude of Kings by Marion Zimmer Bradley are quite good, as are any of the Sword and Sorceress anthology she edited.
You might also like the Thieve’s World storys. (ETA: Edited by Robert Lynn Asprin) Andre Norton’s Catfantastic anthologies are also quite good. I read the Magic in Ithkar 4 collection, (Edited by Andre Norton and Robert Adams) and have wanted to find the other books in that series for some time. I seem to recall enjoying The Book of Andre Norton. Andre Norton’s Mark of the Cat, and Brother to Shadows (different series) were good too as is her Wraiths of Time.
The Pegasus series by Anne Macaffery is good. I also recommend the Rowan series (same universe as the Pegasus series, but in the future) by Anne Macaffery. I see both are part of The Talents Universe, and the Rowan series is more properly known as The Tower and Hive series. Robert Asprin’s Myth and Myth INC books are funny, as is his Phule’s Company. I hope there are some books in there you’ll enjoy. Safe journey.
When are you leaving? I’ll loan you both A Widow for One Year and Until I Find You, both by John Irving. I love them – with one exception, his writing just keeps getting better and better. He’s an excellent storyteller, IMO, especially if you like dark humor.
Plus, they’re long stories, especially the latter. They’ll get you a good chunk of the way through the trip, if not the whole way.
If you want one book to get you through the whole trip, I’ll loan you A Suitable Boy; it’s nearly 1500 pages. 
“Snakes on a Plane”!
How fast do you read? If it’s reasonably fast, you might want to try one of Edward Ruthurfurd’s novels. They’re very Mitchener - tracing history through one location, but well researched and very readable. The only one I’ve read is The Forest which I really enjoyed, but his Dublin books are very popular too. Plus they clock in at a respectable 700+ pages. Perfect plane fodder.
I’m a bit of a short story fan. One plane ride, I read a book called “Naked”, by David Sedaris. It was quite good.
ETA: Hey I might see him Sunday!
Everyone else seems to be suggesting page-turners. Me, I usually go a different route. I try to read classics when travelling-- You know, that list of books that everyone wants to have read, but nobody wants to read? It’s my experience that most of them are classics for good reason, but a lot of them have slow starts. By reading them while travelling, I force myself to get past the slow start (since I have nothing better to do), and into the good stuff.
Going with Chronos’ idea, how about The Decameron by Boccaccio, or Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Also, Treasure Island, or Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson are good. I think The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a classic, myself, but you might not. How about Beowulf: A New Telling by Robert Nye, or Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling? The Canturbury Tales by Geoffry Chaucer anyone?
Well, then, Orlando Furioso.
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys! Obviously I won’t be able to buy all of these for my trip, however, we will be making these types of trips more often now that I am a permanent resident with a job that has vacation time. 
So many good suggestions here, I will probably stick most of these on my Wish List for my future trips.
(stargazer: we’re leaving in the wee hours tomorrow morning, I started this thread too late!)
Speaking of starting too late, I stupidly forgot I’d started this thread last night before bed, and was hoping to have some great suggestions when heading to Barnes & Noble after my driver’s test this morning (which I passed, woohoo! Stay off the road, Seattle Dopers, I’m on the loose!) I was sleepy, and kept browsing the Dope, trying to remember what I was looking for, only too late, as I stood in the aisles of B & N, feeling mystified, a little lost, sleepy, and curious… and picked up, of all things, Four Past Midnight, specifically for The Langoliers. I’d read it years ago and enjoyed the whole book, but have long since forgotten most of the stories. I kept wondering what the Dopers might have suggested, and told myself to bookmark the thread for future reading (and also, I’ll need something for the trip back). I come home and open the thread, and the first suggestion is… ooooooh, spooky. 
Next trip home I’ll take you up on your offer, stargazer; I’m overdue for a trivia night anyway, and I seem to go in six month intervals, so I should be ready for another trip home by then.
Not a specific book recommendation, but more of a logistical one: if you use a PDA (Palm, or Pocket PC), you can load it up with ebooks so you have a big selection of reading material at your fingertips. We bought portable chargers for ours (basically external battery holders that plug into the Palm’s charging port) for travelling so if the juice runs out, we can still use it. The Palm plus the charger are about the size of one good-sized papeback. If you don’t use a PDA now, but have been thinking of getting one, this might be a good impetus to do so.
No worries – in 6 months, I should have a 3-month-old, and I doubt I’ll have any time to read! And even if I do have time, I doubt I’ll have brain cells available. (But the lack of brain cells won’t stop me from going to trivia, oh no.) 
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. As someone who never had a desire to climb much of anything, I couldn’t put this book down. Also, there’s something about flying in a pressurized airplane cabin and realizing that the people in the book are climbing to a similar altitude.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Unlike any book I’ve ever read. I can’t imagine how she kept it all straight in her head while writing it.
I third this. It’s awesome. (I just spent my recent flights reading it, along with Theodore Judson’s Fitzpatrick’s War.)
Carl Hiassen’s books are pretty entertaining. Christopher Moore as well.
I personally don’t like to get into really heavy books on long flights. You can bring along War and Peace, but a lot of these big classics are not riviting page turners IMHO. And you don’t want to be stuck on a 4 or 12 hour flight with a book you don’t like. I usually bring a couple of different books and see what grabs me in the air.
John Irving has always been one of my long flight favorite authors. I read Garp on my first flight to Asia 25 years ago. As the previous poster said, he just keeps getting better and better.
Not to pick on the OP, but I’ve heard this question asked a lot, and I’ve never understood its point. Isn’t it just the same as asking “what’s a pretty interesting book I should read?”? Not that that’s not a valid question in itself but…it’s not as though there’s a specific type of book that should be read on airplanes…right?
