Ask Slashdot: What Do You Like To Read?

badeMan writes "I will be traveling a third of the way around the world this Christmas, and that means a lot of time on a plane. I have decided I am not going to do any coding or technical reading during the flight. Outside the realm of technology and all things related to work, what do you find interesting to read? What books, genres, and authors do you enjoy?"

Comments

Re:new yorker

[PopeRatzo]

get the new yorker either printed or on iPad.

I'll second that. Take along an ebook copy of "Reamde" too. It's a hoot and will make the time fly by. Dude knows how to tell a story. Some of the best set pieces you'll find in the genre known as "sci fi" and the most fantastically plausible situations that could totally never happen, unless they do. It helps to have at least a passing acquaintance with roleplaying games, networks, and geopolitics, but it's not required.

Also, the Stephen Mitchell edition of the Tao Te Ching is worth sticking in the backpack (the actual paper copy, not the ebook). It's a slender volume, won't take much room, but will occupy a lot of space inside your head if you read it without expectations. You'll come back from the holidays refreshed and I guarantee that picking it up and reading passages will attenuate the holiday blues. You'll want the paper copy so you can flip around to something you read a few days previously, just to see if it really says what you think it said.

A great historical read is "Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War" by Tony Horwitz. It's a great reminder that if you go back to any of the most important events in American history, you'll find someone who could very easily (and mostly accurately) be termed a "terrorist". It's the story of unbelievable courage or zealotry bordering on the insane, depending on your point of view, and a chapter from our past that a lot of people don't know about or are uncomfortable talking about. John Brown is an amazing character that is held up as a hero by the far right and the far left and of whom even the "middle" stand in awe (if a bit uncomfortably). The things that happened at Harpers Ferry are still affecting us today.

Also, make sure you take a little time to read nothing, to take out the earphones and put away the electronics. The real interesting stuff is what's happening inside you, if you only have the patience and ability to quiet the noise in your head for a while.

And happy new year if I don't see you before.