Take Me Away

“Ladies and gentlemen, please make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened, and your trays are in the upright and locked position.”

By the time the flight attendant gives final takeoff instructions, you can usually find me already engrossed in a novel or narrative nonfiction. As part of my night-before-flight checklist, I’ve downloaded three or four books onto my Kindle. This step is as important as toothpaste and deodorant in my packing process. 

I can’t read in the car without getting nauseated. But on the plane, I let a story carry me far away so that I can forget I’m crammed next to a stranger for six-plus hours, 35,000 feet above the earth in a metal tube with only pretzels and a half-can of sparkling water.

Pages of My Life - Lyneta Smith on @BRMCWC #Reading #Readinglife #BRRC Share on X

Recently, I flew home to Nashville from a writers conference in California, where I had the privilege of learning the craft under James L. Rubart. I’d read a couple of his books before, but not all of them. His enthusiasm for his stories was contagious, and whatever I’d planned to read on the way home took a backseat to a newly downloaded novel, The Chair.

You know it’s a good book when the wheels hit the tarmac, and you look up and think, “Oh, man. I’m almost done. Maybe taxi for about fifteen minutes before pulling up to the gate?”

That’s it—the number one criteria for a plane read is that it takes me completely out of my reality and into a much more pleasant headspace, such as protecting a priceless antique chair from murderous thieves. Authors who can write a story that makes me lose all sense of time and place fly to the top of my read-on-a-plane list.

Sure, I love a good theology, Christian living, or writing craft book. I read those all the time. But on the plane, I want to have my head in the clouds. Not only literally, but also figuratively—fighting a drug ring and a corrupt law enforcement agency, exploring a land I discovered at the back of a wardrobe, hiking through the Sahara to find the treasure. Any adventure between the covers of a book will do. The sky’s the limit, as long as the story keeps me entranced.

Once in awhile, I’ll get a crazy idea that maybe if I didn’t buy so many books, I could afford to fly first class. I imagine riding in comfort, eating a nice meal served with a cloth napkin, maybe even taking a nap.

But I dismiss such nonsense immediately. First, to figure out how much I spend on books, I would have to do math, another unpleasant reality I try to avoid. And … not buy books? That’s even more insane than stuffing a couple hundred people in a 200-ton tin can like some kind of flying sardines and pretending like it’s normal and healthy to spend that kind of time with loud talkers and seat back kickers.

No, thank you. I’ll just stick with my regular shopping habit on Amazon. (I can quit anytime I want. I just don’t want to.)

Have you read any good take-on-a-plane books lately? I’d love to add to my take-me-away list. Tell me yours in the comments.

Lyneta Smith collects archaic, cool-sounding words, but reluctantly edits them out for clarity. Her book, Curtain Call: A Memoir won a Selah award and a Cascade award. She’s published in anthologies, such as Chicken Soup for the Soul, magazines, and newspapers. Recently she’s added the cutest editorial assistant—a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Harli. She’s the president of Page 29, an online Word Weaver’s group, and small group leader at her local church. She and her husband make their home near Nashville, Tennessee, where they are loving the grandparenting era in their lives. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading or coloring with her grandkids or buying them stuff at Target.