I have many hours of flying to look forward to. I want to spend those hours revisiting a hobby that I used to enjoy — recreational reading!

Currently, I have two books in my reading buffer — Economia by Geoff Davies and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Economia is an environmental critique of economic theory. Catch-22 is, of course, the defining satire of human war. I wanted to bring both onto the aeroplane with me but Damjan suggested that maybe in my travel-induced haze I might appreciate some some ‘lighter’ reading material — lighter in every sense of the word.

So today I went to the library. I was there to photocopy Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody for my brother, who has found that he simply cannot do without his manuscript for the three months that he is overseas. Ha! I told you so, Jason!

While I was there, I browsed through the fiction shelves for the first time in at least a year. It was so hard to choose books! My criteria for travelling reading are:

• Interesting (of course);
  

• Of decent length;
  

• Easy to read so that I can manage even when there are blood clots building up in my limbs; and
  

• Paperback because I want to make a pretense of travelling light.

It was surprisingly difficult to find worthy books. There were many mildly interesting books that I would normally borrow but I didn’t want to risk taking a boring one. The books with riveting blurbs all turned out to be hardcovers. There were a few very slim books (it seems fashionable to publish in A5 and B6 nowadays) that I could have finished as I walked from the airport check-in to customs. Other books had 3 point typeface — or 15 point typeface.

As an interesting aside, I must have spent too long away from recreational reading because it was a bit of shock to open a novel and see paragraphs delimited by indents rather separated by empty lines!

Anyway, here are the books I ended up borrowing.

• Ladylord by S. Miller — In a Japan-like country, uproar is generated when a female (gasp!) is appointed ruler.
  

• Bad Boy by O. Goldsmith — Nice guy gets help from best friend (female, of course) to become more a Bad Boy. All women begin to flock towards him.
  

• The Crazed by H. Jin — An “incisive portrait of modern Chinese society” through the eyes of a literature professor.
  

• Timegods’ World by L. Modesitt Jr — Timedivers and Immortals manipulate cultures and civilisations all around the galaxy. Yeah, you know the drill 🙂