Stephen King vs. Dante: Why Traveling With the Right Book Matters

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  03.21.07 | 11:51 AM ET

imageIt could be a guidebook, or Dante’s Divine Comedy, or even an atlas. In Jay Parini’s case, the books he takes along when he travels depend “a great deal on my mood and the context of the journey,” he writes in a terrific little essay in The Chronicle Review. “Weeks before any journey, I begin to worry about what books I’ll bring,” he writes. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a short hop for the night or something more adventurous, I wonder what I’ll read en route (if I’m going by plane or train) and what I’ll read while I’m there, perhaps sleepless in a hotel room. There’s nothing worse than being without the right book in those situations. Yet—given the restrictions and demands of travel—one has to be selective.”

So true. For instance, I wouldn’t want to read Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor on a flight across Australia.

Parini has some other tips:

* Take along “comfort books.” He writes: “These are the texts that I know will keep me happy in strange or awkward settings.”

* “On a long journey, it’s also useful to have a decently ambitious but discreet project on hand.” That’s where something like Dante’s Divine Comedy fits in.

* For transatlantic flights, he writes, “The object is to find a book that will last about five hours, which means a short book—a novella is perfect, or a collection of stories.”

On that last point, Parini eschews bestsellers, claiming he can only suspend his disbelief in a Stephen King or Patricia Cornwell book for so long before losing interest.

I disagree. The airport novel has its purpose, and can sometimes be quite good. And if embarking on a long trip can’t stimulate your imagination, well, maybe the problem lies within you.

Related on World Hum:
* Reading Rushdie in India
* A Direct Impression

Tags: Air Travel, Page Turner, Literary Travel, News and Briefs


No comments for Stephen King vs. Dante: Why Traveling With the Right Book Matters.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.