So, I’m heading to South Africa on Friday. What’ll I be doing? A few different things that I’ll be telling you about in a later post. The purpose of this post is different.
Getting to South Africa requires a lot of flying. A few years ago Delta started offering direct flights to Johannesburg from both Atlanta and JFK. On Friday, I’ll be flying from ATL. This flight lasts anywhere from seventeen to nineteen hours. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s a long flight to say the least. The discrepancy is whether there is a fuel stop in Dakar, Senegal or not and if there is how long that stop ends up taking and whether or not we have to actually change planes (as you can see, Delta’s definition of a “direct”flight is a little flexible).
Unlike many other airlines offering flights to where I’m going, including South Africa Airways, KLM, and Air France, Delta does not offer personal entertainment stations unless you’re in business class (and who can afford that?). So, you’re usually stuck watching mediocre or lame movies on a community screen (if you can see that screen) and praying that your headphone jack (or jacks) works. So, usually I make do with watching some stuff on my iPod or computer, but usually I just read. I’m a fast reader, though, and can really get through some books. For instance, when I went to South Africa last year I read five books. When I went to Kenya, four. When I went to the Philippines, six. You get the idea.
Anyway, I thought I’d check and see if any of you have any good recommendations for me. What should I be reading? It might be new or old, popular or obscure. I don’t care. My interests are pretty varied. I probably won’t be too keen on “how to” books, self help, romance novels or gift books. And please, for the love of all things good and decent, no Twilight. I tried them already. I got through the first two and just couldn’t get through the third, much less the fourth. Those books make my acid reflux act up, plus I think they might be ruining adolescent females. But other than that, let me know any suggestions you might have.
What do you think I should be reading?
Tags: Air France, ATL, Atlanta, Books, Delta, Flight, Friday, iPod, JFK, Johannesburg, Kenya, KLM, Movies, New York, Philippines, Plane, South Africa, South Africa Airways, Travel, Trip, Twilight
June 30th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Yo bro, check out “How We Decide” by Jonah Lehrer. I got through a good amount of the book while waiting in a Walden Books at an airport. It’s really interesting. It’s a psych book, but not too high-brow. Also, I second your point about Twilight ruining adolescent females. In fact I have a whole theory on these types of books and movies ruining females in the same degree that pornography ruins males. Anyway… much love!
June 30th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I got a couple – Loved Keller’s “The Prodigal God.” It will take you about 2 hours to get through. Also, I really dug “4 Pillars of a Man’s Heart” by Stu Webber.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
They won;t get you far but I love “Imagine” by Steve Turner, and “Perelandra” by CS Lewis for my airport reads.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Smart book: Annie Dillard’s For the Time Being. It’s a “spriritual” book, which I tend to lean away from, but it asks some questions that I found myself unable to answer at the time. It’s got some good challenges for people of faith, and some great quotes.
Good read: the Thursday Next novels. There are four of them, starting with The Eyre Affair, and Amy Harlan recommended them to me. They’re sort of hard-boiled with overtones of literary geekiness.
Total trash: The Anita Blake novels by Laurell K. Hamilton are fun but with little to no nutritive content. They’re kind of schlocky horror meets Buffy meets Sam Spade, heavy emphasis on the Buffy.
Parting shot: Things I Learned About My Dad: In Therapy, edited by Heather Armstrong. It’s a collection of essays on fatherhood from various bloggers. Nice because it’s naturally segmented and also relevant to your recent foray into parenthood.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:34 pm
These are some of books I love love LOVE:
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Night, The Zookeeper’s Wife, A Heart of Stone, All Over But the Shoutin’, Things Fall Apart, A Heart of Stone, and Everything Is Illuminated
If you like “young adult” literature:
Number the Stars, My Brother Sam is Dead, Witches, Matilda
One that I really want to read (but haven’t yet):
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
July 1st, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I wrote A Heart of Stone twice.