With advertising for the 50 Shades of Grey movie everywhere you look, you might be tempted to read (or re-read) the 2011 book that started it all. Learn from my mistake: if you decide to do so, do so in the privacy of your own home.
When the book first came out years ago, I felt sly reading it on my Kindle. No one can tell what I’m reading, I thought. For all anyone knows, I’m reading War and Peace! That might have been true on my commute (although my smirk probably gave away the fact that I wasn’t actually reading Russian literature), during which I stood on the subway with the Kindle in my hand, but it certainly didn’t work out so well on a flight. The woman in the seat next to mine took one glance over at the smut on my Kindle and arranged her features in a look that was distinctly unimpressed. I was embarrassed for the entire duration of the flight.
Don’t do what I did! Save 50 Shades of Grey for home reading, and instead take one of these books along with you on your next flight:
Books to Improve Your Life:
- Spirit Junkie: A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein. This book describes Gabrielle Bernstein’s journey from party girl to inspirational leader. An interesting and enlightening read, the book combines her personal experience with suggested meditations and actions the reader can take to bring change into her own life.
- Make Your Own Rules Diet by Tara Stiles. The title makes this sound like more of a “diet” book than it is. Tara Stiles – the “yoga rebel” – focuses on integrated health, encouraging readers to use their mats, couches (for meditation), and kitchen in a journey toward total wellness. There’s no better time to read this book than in resolution-heavy January.
- Thrive by Arianna Huffington. The subtitle of this book is “The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder.” Arianna Huffington dispenses such good advice – some from her own experience and some collected from experts – in this book that my Kindle copy is littered with highlighted passages. Despite being packed with information, the book is an easy, pleasant read, making it perfect for travel.
- My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor. I was initially skeptical when I was assigned this book in my yoga book club, but this story of a brain scientist’s stroke and her eight-year journey to recovery, is fascinating and revealing. If you’ve ever been curious about how your brain works, pick this up.
Memoirs of Wandering Women:
- Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
by Elizabeth Gilbert. Is there anyone who hasn’t read Eat, Pray, Love yet? If you somehow managed to avoid the hype, now is as good a time as any to read about (and get jealous of) Elizabeth Gilbert’s epic journey across continents in search of herself.
- Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents by Elisabeth Eaves. Differing from Eat, Pray, Love in almost all respects other than that it is a woman’s memoir of time spent abroad, Wanderlust is a chronicle of the author’s fifteen-year quest for adventure and herself. At times uplifting and at times depressing, this book is always interesting.
- Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. This is where I admit that I haven’t actually read Wild. I have had Cheryl Strayed’s account of her journey recommended to me by many, though, and it is on my “to-read” list.
Literary Adventures:
- The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson. Included on many of the lists of best books of 2014, The Laughing Monsters is an intriguing tale of deception of adventure set in Africa. Make no mistake: this isn’t a feel-good book, but it is definitely a good book.
- Euphoria by Lily King. Set in Papua New Guinea in the 1930’s, Euphoria tells the story of three anthropologists working in the field. There’s love, adventure, and beautiful descriptions of the landscape.
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. On the lighter side of literary, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a fun story about a search for a runaway mother … that takes the reader to Antarctica.
Any other recommendations for good plane reads? Let me know in the comments!
Image credit: Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier