You haven’t spent enough time around me if you haven’t heard me whining about transoceanic flights. I discovered a remedy for hours of lightly shaken, recycled air boredom on my last trip to Zagreb though. In order to survive this ordeal unscathed one must bring along a page-turner. I’ve been taking books on the airplane for years, but I’ve always put them down after two hours. Some books, most books I would choose in fact, need some time to percolate between chapters. The trick is therefore to get a book you will not put down. For me these books are written by Carol Shields followed closely by Hunter S. Thompson.
For the harrowing trip to Japan and back I have chosen her novel The Republic of Love. Carol Shields is not my favourite author, but I have always read her books within days, which is quite unusual for me. As I expected, I was able to not get bored on the plane and the book lasted me enough for both directions. Is it a good book? Yah, not too bad. It is too much of a love story which makes it corny, but it is still pretty well done. If you are a cynic, the story will not be too believable, otherwise it is a good, coherent work. I do prefer her later novel, Unless. The question is, of course, on how many plane rides I can read the same author before I get bored.
