What to read on that LONG flight?

Betsy Lotze

Well, 6 days 'til that 20 hour plane ride to Delhi and I'm off to the book store. Any suggestions on an engaging, don't have to think TOO hard, can stop occasionally to keep the kids from fighting but don't want to put down book (novel or not) ?

albaruni

Ten little indians : Sherman alexi

sillylilly

Empire of the Soul: Journeys in India
By: Roberts, Paul William

Get this book. So many people have borrowed my copy and told me they read it in one sitting.

indiadreamn

It may not be about India, but "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden was a book that I just couldn't put down. Exremely entertaining and an easy read when distracted by the outside world

DianeN.

On flights I like to read something light and fluffy--something I never read in ordinary circumstances. A three hundred or so page book that I can finish, and after leaving it on the plane...I can't remember what it was I read. Tends to lean toward romance (oh I can't believe I'm admitting it in public!) or a romantic mystey. Nothing that needs concentration....but passes the time quickly. Sort of "mind junk food". But If I'm lucky I get a good book that falls under that category....maybe something like Bridget Jones's Diary that did remain in my memory.
I'm a tremendous reader and read just about everything. But I save plane rides for the trashy stuff.
If you can't finish the book on the plane (I also try to sleep while flying) then it is easy to finish when you wake up in the middle of the night after you arrive because of jet lag.

RohSun

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry.

A breathtaking book about India.

__________________
Life begins on the far side of despair.

aether

while i thought a fine balance was an excellent book, it was utterly depressing. by the time i was done with it i was pretty devastated. not sure if it's the most, er, heartening way to start a trip to india...

aether

oh, how about corelli's mandolin, by louis de bernieres? also good is the trilogy he wrote (one volume called the war of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts...) which is in the vein of magical realism ala gabriel garcia marquez (another great author)

guerik

DianeN: It's not embarrassing - I was about to say the same thing.. something long but not too complicated, a light chick-fic book, pulp sci-fi or fantasy (depending on where your tastes lie).
The added bonus is that they're usually pretty cheap and you won't be so attached to it that you won't want to leave it on the plane.

Otherwise you may be able to trade it with a second-hand book dealer for something else

wonderwomanusa

I like to take books that I can trade with other travellers or at a second-hand bookstore. That usually means "trade paperbacks" or classics for the bookstores; some of our sister travellers might want to read the romances.

In October, going to India, I read THE POISONWOOD BIBLE; on the way back, I read Kipling's JUNGLE BOOK.

__________________
The map is not the territory. --Alfred Korzybski

tstan

It is a good idea not to be too heavily laden with books at the beginning of a long flight to India.

Dianne's throwaway airport novel makes sense.WWUSA's idea of taking a recyclable book is even better because in backpacker areas, there are always bookshops that will happily exchange your paperback and give you a few rupees for it.

A lot depends on the timing of your flight. If most of it is at night, it is probably best to be comatose and eat minimal amounts of food and drink - in my experience the effects of jet lag are greatly minimised by sleeping as much as possible.

In the end, it is a matter of personal choice what one reads. I would avoid reading my guidebook on the flight so I will probably grab a light paperback by Tom Sharpe from my bookshelf.

SHIMLA

LP's "India", 10th edition !

If you're carrying it, you might as well go through it on the flight. You'll be better equipped to face India on landing at New Delhi.

__________________
Whoever said money can't buy happiness didn't know where to shop !

vistet

When I trek at home , this is the moment of truth after reading : is this worth carrrying out ? Some of them have come to rest under the heather.

Among my favourite teller of tales are Michael Ondaatje , Always Coming Home , for example. Puts you in a good frame of mind - and the Indian Subcontinent frame. Don`t judge him as a author by the gheeladen film version of the English Patient (which also is a great read).

Recycling : another good way of recycling is bookcrossing

bijapuri

the paperback edition of "City of Djinns" by Wm Dalrymple
About his year in Delhi. A must if you're headed there. Light in weight and spirit, and VERY informative

__________________
Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
Barack Obama

lookit me!!!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/

Utube fuzzy logic:
http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bijapuri&p =r

Bryan

The Magus by John Fowles...An incredible book with an ending that will have yiou wanting to re-read it adn meet others for their opinion on it

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...246186-3385727

100 Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez One of the greatest books of the 20th Century. You wont want to put it down

Bryan

PS... I should add I usually spend more time looking out the window than reading ...

__________________
Then let us pray that come it may
(As come it will for a' that),
That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree an a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man, the world, o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
- Burns