Airborne reading

IF you were escaping winter into the northern hemisphere, how would you cope with the long flights and waiting? I’ve surveyed some seasoned intercontinental travellers, asking them: Would you read? What? And how? Here goes, with thanks to Alan, Ann, Jean, John, Louise, Robin, and Stuart.

Is reading enough?

Ann: On the long flights I watch a good film. I do most reading while endlessly waiting in airports. Alan: On long flights when sleep proves difficult I will read, and also watch films. John: Because I travel for work, on the flights I’m preparing for the meetings ahead, or writing them up. Any time over is for mindnumbing games, or sleep.

Louise: I sometimes watch other people’s movies without the dialogue in my ears. The screen at a distance is better than the very close one in economy class. Though I read a little, I prefer listening to classical or lighter music. Only one book in hand luggage. Robin: I mainly work on the plane: I read and write emails, catch up on backlog, read workrelated papers; then collapse into a movie. Stuart: I mix it. I’ve given up on films — they demand too much attention — so it’s mainly reading and listening. We take cryptic crosswords cut out from the

ODT, to do together: Codecrackers and Sudokus for Jean alone. There are good readings to be heard: poetry recommended (Beowulf and Burns).

How best to read?

Alan: Kindle, because it avoids the extra weight of books.

Ann: I now travel with a Kindle and share the choice of books with Alan. But the best thing on long flights is sleeping pills!!

Jean: I supplement novels with Kindle, on which I’ve loaded a couple of hundred novels, usually older ones which don’t cost so much. Louise: I prefer books, though I have tried my iPad. Stuart: I’ve never read anything on Kindle.

What to read?

John: If I do read, it’s magazines — Economist preferred. Also the local newspapers of places visited.

Stuart: I always include magazines bought at the airport before departure. Favourites include the Economist, New

Scientist, and NZ Geographic. On outgoing flights we do destination travelguide reading

(Lonely Planet, etc.), but on return journeys nonfiction of value purchased while away, particularly histories of places visited. Ann: I opt for nothing that’s too demanding but keeps your attention — the likes of John Grisham, or David Baldacci. When I did backpacker travel in SE Asia I took paperbacks and left them behind and did a swap with books that others had left. (Precursor of Lilliput Libraries?) Alan: I read a nonfiction book and a novel at the same time, but because of the difficulty of concentrating would probably read more of the novel on a flight. The novels would be fairly undemanding — Harlan Coben, Robert Goddard. Next time: Conclave by Robert Harris, and finish One Hundred

Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Nonfiction

I’ve recently finished includes

Thank you for being late by Thomas L. Friedman and The

Rational Optimist by Matt

Ridley. Louise: The Durrells of

Corfu by Michael Haag. A good read in paperback that can be put down.

Conclusions

(1) Readers vary. (2) Kindle scores well. (3) Like Louise, I prefer other people’s movies, seen without the sound. (4) If I could keep working, I would; can’t do it in cattle class. (5) Flights remain an ordeal. Confinement, dryness, and cabin air take a toll. You feel like Macbeth, cabined, cribbed,

confined. (6) Readers! Share your solutions with: