Are Plane Reads Better Because You Read Them On A Plane?

My friend Mike and I have a theory: No matter how much you'd normally hate the genre, actors or story, if you watch a movie on a plane, it is automatically 1.5 to 2 stars better than it would have been if you'd watched it in your living room. By way of example, on a recent London to O'Hare flight, I found myself totally engrossed in the Zac Efron vehicle 17 Again. Pathetic, right? Another example: Mike, who's forgotten more about movies than most people will ever know and who frequently watches really obscure foreign language and artsy films, admitted to being moved to tears at the end of the laughably bad Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsay Lohan film Freaky Friday. Enough said.

The reason for this is easily explainable: When you're trapped on a plane and have nothing better to do, of course the movie's going to look good in comparison to staring at the back of the seat in front of you.

I'd never really connected this theory to books before, but now that I think about it, it certainly stands to reason that the same better-on-a-plane phenomenon is true. Most people identify the "plane read" with a low-concentration, breezy book. Of course I would agree with that, and despite my book snobbishness, I enjoy the occasional genre fiction at 35,000-feet as well. But there is still a spectrum of quality, even among plane reads. So does reading a bad low-brainer on a plane make it better than if you'd read it at your corner Starbucks?

I first started thinking about this a few months ago as I was plowing through the second book in Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series, The Third Option. Judging in retrospect, by just about any objective measure, it's a bad book — it's poorly written and the plot is preposterous. But on the plane I got about two-thirds of the way through the book, and was totally lovin' it! When I picked it up the next day laying on my couch, I skimmed and laughed (at it, not with it) and laughed and skimmed until I was finished. I couldn't believe it was the same book. It was as if Plane Greg had tricked Couch Greg into looking forward to reading it again.

Another example is Jonathan Tropper's How To Talk To A Widower. Now, this book actually is solid, but the plane elevated it to a level whereby I literally got choked up a few times and laughed out loud more than twice — which is totally out of character for me, a rather even-keel reader. The Plane Theory worked to turn this book from a good, readable novel to a novel practically on par with Don freakin' Quixote in my recirculated-air-addled mind.

So, what's your take? Anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Have there been books in which you were totally absorbed on a plane, but which were complete bores on the ground?

Another Compendium of Literary Links

A number of interesting articles have popped up around the literary world in the last few weeks, so I thought I'd spend another post pointing out a few of the items that have caught my eye, in the hope you'll find something fascinating here as well. 

1. The Death and Life of the Book Review — If you're willing to expend quite a bit of intellectual capital, not to mention time, this excellent piece in this month's The Nation explains the real reasons for the slow genocide of newspaper book sections. It's partly "the anti-intellectual ethos of newspapers themselves" and partly cultural. But despite the changing culture and the fact that only a few newspaper books sections remain, the author asserts that there's still "a genuine hunger for serious books coverage," and explains how book reviews may flourish in magazines and on the Web, even citing ("despite its commercialism") the wonderful Barnes & Noble Review as a city on a hill. The author ends on a note of clear optimism: "Despite the turmoil and doubts, I think there's no better time than the present to be covering books." It's a truly fantastic article! 

2. 20 Under 40 — The New Yorker's annual list of 20 young novelists isn't interesting for the names themselves because many (Joshua Ferris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss) are pretty well-established. It's worth looking at for the interviews with each writer. For instance, I find it fascinating that one of Joshua Ferris's favorite writers is Thomas Pynchon. I'm not sure why that should be interesting, but it stood out to me. The list is in conjunction with the magazine's annual fiction issue, so you can also find stories by writers on the list, including Gary Shteyngart, Salvatore Scibona, and Rivka Galchen.

3. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die — This list, which isn't exactly new, but is new to me, is compiled in book form based on the recommendations of hundreds of literary critics. It's a great resource if you're looking for ideas for what to read next. No, I didn't go through the exercise of actually counting how many I've read, but if you do, I'd love to hear your score! 

4. Lethem "Replacing" DFW — Jonathan Lethem is taking David Foster Wallace's spot as the Roy Disney Chair of Creative Writing at Pomona College in California. This kind of made me sad. Nothing against Lethem, but how could anyone ever really fill DFW's shoes in any respect? But, while we're on a DFW kick (and I usually am), here's some happier news: In December, Columbia University Press is publishing DFW's undergraduate thesis titled "Fate, Time and Language." This precedes the publication of his last unfinished novel The Pale King in April, 2011. That, I can't wait for!

5. The Passage review in the NY Times — To atone for my sin of erroneously making fun of Justin Cronin's The Passage as a "paranormal urban vampire romance," here's Janet Maslin's mostly positive review from the NY Times.

Any thoughts on these? Any interesting literary-related articles that have caught your eye recently?

BBAW Registration Post

Hello judges!  Please consider these five posts as entry for each of the categories (Best Literary Blog, Best Written Book Blog, Best New Book Blog) entered. Cheers!

Let The Great World Spin review
http://thenewdorkreviewofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/05/let-great-world-spin-elegant-profound.html

The Financial Lives of the Poets review
http://thenewdorkreviewofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/financial-lives-of-poets-delightful.html

A Gate At The Stairs review
http://thenewdorkreviewofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/gate-at-stairs-metaphor-mania.html

Is A Book Reviewer an Artist?
http://thenewdorkreviewofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/is-book-reviewer-artist.html

A Look At Literary Gimmicks
http://thenewdorkreviewofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/02/plays-thing-look-at-literary-gimmicks.html

Would You Approach A Writer At Random?

Rebecca Goldstein’s 36 Arguments For the Existence of God has been on my shelf, sadly unread, for a few months now. I’m legitimately excited to read it as I love heady novels that fuse philosophy and fiction, I just haven’t quite gotten to it yet. And never had I wished I’d read it more than this past weekend when my girlfriend and I were walking through Central Park in New York, and I saw Ms. Goldstein sitting on a park bench. You would’ve thought I was a teenage girl who’d just seen Justin Bieber. Well, okay, not exactly – but I was pretty star struck.

Of course, not having read the book, I couldn’t summon the courage to actually talk to her. It was enough to enjoy the “celebrity sighting” experience. Similarly, one other time earlier this year, I saw Audrey Niffenegger in a bar in Chicago enjoying a glass of wine with a friend, and I didn’t approach her either. The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of my top 20 favorite novels, but still, I couldn’t talk myself into interrupting her conversation to gush.

Both of these “celebrity sightings” got me thinking about literature fans and writers and the correct etiquette (if there is any) in these situations. Let’s be clear: I’m not counting author-signing events, where the sole purpose of both you and the writer being in the same place is some sort of interaction (usually awkward, in my case). I’m talking about totally random times when you spot a writer just going about his/her day. Is it okay to chat them up? I mean, these aren’t actors or athletes who are used to being accosted by autograph- and photo-seeking fans. Would a writer who is quietly enjoying a sunny summer afternoon on a park bench be annoyed by being approached by a star-struck fan?

What do you think?  Have you ever randomly encountered a writer/novelist just minding his/her own business? How did you react? 


(By the way, if you're wondering, yes, Ms. Goldstein lives in Massachusetts. She's married to Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, as a random, but interesting, note. So I was wondering why she'd be on a park bench in New York. I was so sure it was her, I made a point to look at her Website as soon as I got back to my room. There, I discovered from here appearances schedule that she was participating in a panel discussion that night in New York. Yep, that was her.) 

Summer Reading Season: What's on Your Wish List?

Here we are, at the precipice of glorious summer: Sunny literary dalliance amidst the soothing serenade of the sea. How'd you like my Pat Conroy impression? To translate: It's summer beach-reading season! So I thought I'd spending a post telling you about some of the more anticipated novels of this summer.

Let's start with two that have already been released. For many, the beach-reading season is not only in full swing, but has already peaked. The trilogy-completer The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest came out on May 25 and has already been raved about by those who live the series — which has further motivated me to finally start the series. Soon. Soooooon.

Another great summer read — Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist — has already been widely devoured, enjoyed and raved about as well. Check out The Reading Ape's terrific review, as one example. I just ordered this book and can't wait to devour, enjoy and review it as well.

My most anticipated book of the summer, unfortunately, doesn't come out until near the close —  when the benign joy of the season will have metastasized into the unbearably drippy dog days. (Does anyone else have a weird subconscious association between summer and Pat Conroy's writing?) Anyway, on August 31st, Jonathan Franzen's new book, Freedom, comes out. Talk about anticipation! This is Franzen's first novel since The Corrections in 2002, which I loved!  

Two other summer books I'm eagerly anticipating: David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (due out June 29th) and Sara Gruen's Ape House (due Sept. 7th). Mitchell's Cloud Atlas has come so highly recommended by so many people I'm a little embarrassed to admit I haven't read it yet. So I'm going to start with this new one (which I also just pre-ordered) and drift backwards to Cloud Atlas after that. Gruen's Water For Elephants was one of the best novels of the aughts, and so I'm intrigued to see what she'll come up with next.

Two other randoms that sound good: Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart (July 27), and the first in what promises to be quite the tree-killing trilogy, Ken Follett's Fall of Giants (Sept. 28).

If you're in to the paranormal urban vampire romance (or whatever that genre's official name is), Justin Cronin's The Passage (due out June 8th) has been getting an obscene amount of good press — including a rare A- from Entertainment Weekly. Finally, and I realize I'm not exactly breaking news here, but probably THE most anticipated novel of the summer across any genre is the conclusion of Suzanne Collins's fantasy/YA trilogy: Mockingjay is due out August 24. I haven't read any of these Hunger Games novels — anyone want to try to make a case that a literary-book-loving dork would enjoy them?

Now you. What are you eagerly anticipating this summer?