# What was the last Airport Novel you purchased? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2017, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734 "2017-02-01T06:21:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/1 "2017-02-01T06:21:11Z")
I was the the airport recently picking up some family members and while I was waiting for their flight to arrive, I decided to browse through the airport bookshop. It got me thinking about the genre of [Airport Novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_novel) - fast-paced, easily readable books designed for people waiting at airports/railway stations or travelling long distances. What surprised me was how many books were for sale in the bookshop, yet how I couldn’t see that many people reading books in the arrivals/departures area. Which got me thinking: When was the last time you bought a novel at an airport for something like reading on the plane or while waiting for your flight? Mine was a copy of _Gai-Jin_ by James Clavell, which I picked up at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 2011. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/2 "2017-02-01T09:13:11Z")
Yeah. I picked up a John Sanford novel at the MPLS-STP airport in April 2016. This was also the last time I was at an airport.\* I almost always buy an airport novel, at the airport. Just in case I have to turn off my Kindle. \*Not counting the one I landed at. ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/3 "2017-02-01T09:19:03Z")
[Los Alamos](https://www.amazon.com/Los-Alamos-Joseph-Kanon/dp/0440224071), by Joseph Kanon. A murder mystery set around the Manhattan Project. I bought it for a flight from Tokyo to Boston back around '99, and I think I finished it during the flight or soon after. The only thing I found memorable about it was that the first 30-odd pages had been misprinted from another book. From what I was able to glean, it was set in the Foundation universe, but written by someone with far, far less talent than Asimov. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/4 "2017-02-01T11:26:51Z")
The last book I bought in an airport was a paperback copy of the Stephen King short story collection “Full Dark, No Stars”; that was probably in 2011 or 2012. Nowadays I just have a bunch of books downloaded from Project Gutenberg on my tablet. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/5 "2017-02-01T12:28:31Z")
_El Padrino_, back in the early 2000s. Yes, that is _The Godfather_ translated into Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/6 "2017-02-01T12:59:42Z")
When I was younger I traveled by bus from NYC to Boston for the summer and back again when school started. I was 14 or 15 the last time I did this and innocently picked up Flowers In The Attic to keep me occupied on the 5 hour trip. I don’t know who I blame more for never taking that trip to Boston ever again, my evil stepmother or this book. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/7 "2017-02-01T13:02:48Z")
The only time I bought a novel at an airport was The Hobbit in the mid-2000s. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/8 "2017-02-01T13:33:19Z")
I haven’t been in an airport for a while, but the last time is when I bought the first of Baldacci’s Reacher ripoffs. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2017, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/9 "2017-02-01T14:09:19Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze;19967590I almost always buy an airport novel, at the airport. Just in case I have to turn off my Kindle.[/QUOTE] I haven’t flown in decades. Is there really a time when you have to turn off your Kindle? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/10 "2017-02-01T15:14:50Z")
[The Terminal Man.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminal_Man) I don’t travel too much… ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/11 "2017-02-01T15:16:33Z")
Um. _The World According to Garp_. Which, if airport novels are supposed to be fast, light reads, is my personality in a nutshell. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/12 "2017-02-01T15:18:42Z")
The Hunger Games, would’ve been in the summer of 2012. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/13 "2017-02-01T16:01:50Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I haven’t flown in decades. Is there really a time when you have to turn off your Kindle? The last few times I’ve flown, kindles were OK the entire time. (American Airlines and Delta) The last airport book I purchased was pre-kindle. No idea what it was. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/14 "2017-02-01T17:43:38Z")
Last Thanksgiving, before getting on a plane to New York, I bought a Jack Reacher paperback that I quite enjoyed, but forgot almost completely five minutes after I got off the plane. Can’t even remember the title, and don’t care enough to look it up. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/15 "2017-02-01T18:15:07Z")
[Smoke](https://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Novel-Random-House-Large/dp/0735209200) by Dan Vyleta. Kind of a historical fiction novel set in a world where sinning has a publicly visible component to it. I heard an interview of the author on NPR, thought the concept sounded interesting, and then promptly forgot about it. Then just a couple of days later, I saw it on a shelf at the airport while buying some pre-flight water and figured, “What the hell?” It was the first hardcover I’d bought in probably over a decade. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/16 "2017-02-01T18:26:45Z")
_The Concorde: Airport '79_ was the last novel in the _Airport_ series, right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/17 "2017-02-01T18:45:18Z")
I don’t think I ever bought an airport novel; I never left for a trip without having one or two with me before I got to the airport. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/18 "2017-02-01T21:56:35Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I don’t think I ever bought an airport novel; I never left for a trip without having one or two with me before I got to the airport. That and the prevalence of Kindles and e-book readers made me wonder who was actually buying books at airports these days, hence the discussion. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/19 "2017-02-01T22:05:21Z")
I’ve only ever gone on two flights in my entire life-- round-trip from Indianapolis to Los Angeles. This was long before the Amazon Kindle came out. I believe I bought a _Star Trek: New Frontier_ novel. ---
**Author:** ![NJ\_Kef\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@NJ\_Kef\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NJ_Kef_1)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734/20 "2017-02-01T22:06:42Z")
_Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis_, Anne Rice. I enjoyed it, but cannot recommend it. Read a fair chunk on a flight from Ft. Myers, FL, to Atlantic City. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-airport-novel-you-purchased/778734.md?page=2)