Last minute trip planning calls for Twitter aid: reading suggestions!
May 16, 2012
One of the mistakes I’ve been making lately is getting on a plane without a good book. I never used to be caught anywhere without reading material at the ready, so being stranded on a plane was like the Spanish Inquisition. I didn’t bear it very well.
My past two weeks have been spectacularly rough, 10-18 hour days, and getting worse, now staring down the barrel of a full week of two business trips in a row, but feeling at death’s door has focused my mind wonderfully on the important things: Do Not Leave Without a Good Book.
Having had no leisure time, though, I had no idea what on earth is out there right now. I turned to Twitter and asked for help. Maybe fantasy or sci fi but it wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t, and it had to be around 700 or more pages because so help me, being stuck at 10,000 feet just having finished a book and needing another one for the next five hours is the sort of brain death I’ll trade someone’s toes for.
Twitter delivered and I share with you the bounty.
From @cthulhuchick: you might like The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Kind of slow, very long, but very good. Historian/Dracula stuff.
From @scoughtfree: the name of the wind and the wise man’s fear by Patrick rothfuss. Though you want only 1, you will want the second soon.
And I’m digging 1Q84. That’s almost a thousand pages.
From @moneymaus: unbroken by laura hillenbrand!
From @csdaley: The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham. Only 600 pages but if you buy the Kindle version it comes packaged with Leviathan Wakes.
And The Reality Dysfunction by Peter Hamilton.
And Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Short on pages (640) but my favorite novel of the last decade.
And Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by @tadwilliams
From @clareyt: I recommend Shantaram!
Of all on your list, I have heard great things about Shantaram. It’s on my own list!
I never go anywhere without reading material too. Nothing panics me as much as knowing there are hours in front of me with nothing to do. On long trips, that means at least 2 paperbacks (I’m fast). It makes for heavy traveling, so I am so glad for my tablet these days.
I <3 my kindle. I always have SEVERAL books on hand, and (many) classics are free. Plus libraries!
OK – I quite liked 1Q84, and it was long. I just got another one by the same author. It is sort of sci-fi, but not in a crazy way.
I’m reading the Great Gatsby, and it is surprisingly easy/fun if you are looking to get in something classic.
I really LOVED “Wild: From Lost to Found on the PCT”, but I love memoirs and I also have a soft spot for the PCT.
Hope your work week is going well!
I try hard to never leave home without my nook, tablet or some other source of reading. Books keep me sane! Two that I read that really moved me were Kite Runner and a thousand Splendid Suns. Not science fiction. But they were SO good! I’ve passed my copies to everyone I know.
Long, good, not SF but exotic anyway is Vikram Seth’s “A Suitable Boy.” You’ll never look at India quite the same way afterwards.
I downloaded the Kindle app for my phone and just get the free books -some great, some are bad! No, it’s the best way to read a book but I’m rarely without reading material this way.