NBLB Weekend Survey #7: Books on a Plane!

Can't you tell we need a vacation? Here's the travel-themed NBLB survey of the week: Books on a Plane!




(Yep...sooo punnnyyyy...)


Mei: Give the Sudoku-toting dude a doll-sized drink!

1) Do you take too many (insert Sammy L.J. expletive here) books on a plane? Why? (Or why not?) No, never. Two books in the hand-carry are too many already. This is coming from somebody who always ends up at the boarding gate with copies of Allure and Entertainment Weekly.

2) What are your travel reading rules? My main rule is to always pack something that I shouldn’t be afraid to put away if I can’t finish it – that way I won’t feel guilty if I have to put the book down in case I need to sleep, which I’d rather do on long flights anyway. I guess that’s what makes me so different from my Dad – his “airplane books” of choice are almost always suspense novels, which I have the compulsion to read from cover to cover without breaks. I also tend to carry a lot of serious books with me – for example, I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink while trekking through the Visayas with my family, because I knew nobody would “get it” well enough to read it over my shoulder.

3) Name one author/topic you will NEVER pack in your handcarry. If the book’s plot points center on something gruesome and macabre, it’s not going on the plane with me. Also, as much as I love my trashy romance novels, I can never bring myself to read them in-flight… unless I want to arrive at my destination crankier than usual.

4) What was your last impulse airport bookstore purchase? I spent a near-fortune on children’s books on my way to the Philippines. It was a good investment, considering that I bought them for my cousins who don’t have a lot of access to quality children’s books back home.

5) Finish this sentence: If I see cute fellah next to me reading ___________, I will try to strike up a conversation about___________ over our doll-sized inflight alcohol rations. Here’s where I out myself as a geekazoid: If said doppelganger-of-Gerard Butler happens to be carrying a book with the words “edited by Will Shortz” on the cover, he better start buying me those $5 rations of booze! There’s nothing like bonding over the clues to the New York Times crossword puzzle. (Extra points if he gives me dibs over the Sudoku.)

6) After a trip, how many pounds (approximately) of your luggage can be blamed on book purchases? Roughly two to five pounds – I usually just buy all sorts of omiyage anyway (especially from Trader Joe’s and Bath & Body Works), so some of those books won’t end up on my shelf. And the ones that do – well, my brother has a habit of giving me running and exercise books every time we see each other, so that counts.

7) Dream book browsing spot: If I ever visit New York, Boston, or London, I will make sure to visit one of those mom-and-pop bookstores that I keep seeing in the movies.

8) (Already visited) Best vacation bookstores ever (include locations if you can remember!): I remember seeing an English bookstore in Rome that made me swoon with delight – I just stumbled right into the door and went crazy. I also swear that LAX has the best airport bookstores, ever.

Also, for those of you visiting Hawaii: We have Borders (Ward Center and Waikiki) and B&N (Ala Moana and Kahala), but you will definitely want to visit the UH Manoa Bookstore for some serious Hawaiiana. [/shameless plug]

9) What sort of books do you buy as souvenirs? I usually just buy books with tons of pictures in them – nothing too heavy (again, see #6), so it would be easy to browse through.

10) The tentative title of MY travel memoir would be: I Hope This Flight Exists. It’s based on an infamous Mei-family anecdote of a bratty tantrum that I threw as a teenager in Bali, when I couldn’t find our flight to Jakarta on the departure board at Denpasar International Airport. What can I say? I was very hormonal at that time. (And obviously not carrying any books with me to read – no wonder my Dad got me started on John Grisham the following summer.)


The Happy Scribe: Don't talk to me, I'm reading.

1) Do you take too many books on a plane? Why? I really, really, really do try to bring only one book (I do!). I end up bringing three. Most of my flights are over ten hours, give or take a few stops. If I bring one, I finish it too quickly and am bored the rest of the trip. Two really should be enough, but then I almost always end up buying another during a stopover. Bad, bad, bad.

2) What are your travel reading rules? Boredom is my biggest enemy on a long flight. The sounds of the plane machinery and so many people in an enclosed space already freak me out, so I need a very good story to distract me. Also, I don't like conversations with strangers next to my elbow - if my nose is in a book, DO NOT DISTURB. If I have to hear you snore, don't cut into well-written dialogue with inane small talk. (This is why I usually go for the aisle seat - I hate feeling boxed in. If my fellow passenger gets too chatty, I leave for the bathroom.) I also prefer fiction over non-fiction during flights - unless it's a travel memoir, I generally like the realms of imagination over reality during vacations.

3) Name one author/topic you will NEVER pack in your handcarry. Nothing that will make me cry. I'm already anti-social as a lone passenger. Sobbing also provokes unwanted conversations with strangers.

4) What was your last impulse airport bookstore purchase? Atonement by Ian McEwan at the MPLS airport, during what seemed like an endless walk to find my terminal.

5) Finish this sentence: If I see cute fellah next to me reading ___________, I will try to strike up a conversation about___________ over our doll-sized inflight alcohol rations. The cute fellah would be my hubby - and he will be reading a photography magazine. We will be talking about Kittensley, as usual, over our $5 vodka tonics.

6) After a trip, how many pounds (approximately) of your luggage can be blamed on book purchases? Ten pounds, easily...and if I'm lucky enough to keep it that low.

7) Dream book browsing spot: I really need to slow down the next time I browse through the little San Fran bookstores. I blame the rain and dim sum cravings - note to self: eat before book shopping. Actually, to have enough time to prowl new bookstores in any culturally alive city would be a dream come true.

8) Best vacation bookstores ever: Oxford's book stores are so much fun. I tend to go into full book consumer mode when I visit any university-oriented town - Oberlin, Oxford, Berkeley...eyeluvem. Another great place to buy books: Singapore - I adore the mix of Asian and European authors, and cannot keep my hands off the Penguin books that don't make it to mainstream U.S. stores (a.k.a. my entire Jean Plaidy and L.M. Montgomery collections).

9) What sort of books do you buy as souvenirs? I love discovering the local humor - comic strip collections and funny books are a must! This is how I discovered the works of Malaysian cartoonist Lat, one of the most hilarious comics I've ever read. (The New Straits Times is a great place to discover Asian humorists.)

10) The tentative title of MY travel memoir would be: Babies On Board and Other Plane Truths. I seem to have the "seat near mother and child" sort of face. I don't think I've ever had a quiet flight - there always seems to be a hundred babies, all screaming in unison, during the longer plane rides I've had. Or toddlers who like to drool over my arm (ah, the flight to Sydney...the memories...). The parents seem to think it's all so very cute for their kids to grab my pony tail, or to burp over my food tray. It's so NOT.