Books that Took Off with Air Travelers in 2014
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Most of us have done it – that last minute impulse buy at the airport bookstore. Maybe you finished your book sooner than expected, or forgot your reading materials at home. Or perhaps you were too ambitious in thinking the airplane would be the right place to finally read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, and after much head pain you’ve opted for something a little less challenging.
It’s impossible to know exactly which books air travelers are choosing to get cozy with in-flight – for all we know, maybe H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu is enjoying a quiet used-bookstore or e-book-facilitated resurgence among air travelers – which would be equal parts weird and awesome. But, with stores in over 25 US airports, Hudson Booksellers 2014 bestseller list gives us a good idea of some of the lit. that was taking off among air passengers.
Boston (BOS)
1. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg
2. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
3. Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter
4. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
5. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
Chicago (ORD)
1. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg
2. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
3. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
4. Divergent, Veronica Roth
5. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
Dallas (DFW)
1. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg
2. The Racketeer, John Grisham
3. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
4. Divergent, Veronica Roth
5. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Los Angeles (LAX)
1. The Racketeer, John Grisham
2. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
3. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
4. Inferno, Dan Brown
5. Divergent, Veronica Roth
New York City (JFK)
1. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg
2. The Racketeer, John Grisham
3. Inferno, Dan Brown
4. Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections, Patrick Smith
5. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Key Themes
Topping the list in four cities, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (2012), by New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg, had air travelers figuring out the science behind all of their bad habits – and maybe some of their good ones too.
The Hollywood factor seems to have had a good effect on the titles recently made into movies, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Veronica Roth’s Divergent. Susannah Cahalan’s memoir Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is also slated to have the big screen treatment next year.
Patrick Smith’s Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections, published in 2013, was the lone aviation-related bestseller, probably snagged up by frequently flying avgeeks.