Books on a Plane: Top 5

Last week was a travel week for me. I was lucky enough to leave the cold and head out to Palm Springs, CA for the TED Active conference. As always I got on the plane armed with books. When headed to the west coast, I used to be able to read an entire book on the plane, but now I seem to be a little too sleepy for that. So I’ll start a book on the plane and then continue reading in my hotel room. It’s funny, though I watch a fair amount of TV at home, I rarely turn it on in a hotel room. But I digress. This trip I took along Wendy Wax’s Magnolia Wednesdays (which will be on the shelves March 2nd) and The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. Though very different, both were very enjoyable.

In addition to my sleeping (hopefully sans drool), my munching on ridiculously overpriced airport food, and my reading, I do enjoy a fair amount of people watching while in the airports and on the plane. This trip, I was happy to note that despite all the new gadgets and gizmos, I still saw a lot of people with good old fashioned books. Here are the top 5 books to take on a trip from my completely unscientific survey:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Vergese
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Associate by John Grisham

I did see a couple of eReaders and there were certainly plenty of people tuned into their iPods or texting like nobody’s business. But still even with all of that... we readers were out in force and I for one was glad to see it.

--Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor