5 Books to Read on a Short Flight

5 Books to Read on a Short Flight

Flying can sometimes be stressful. The movie list given by some airlines might not be interesting or you might not feel like watching a movie during a flight. Flights are one of the only times we can spend on our own and they may be the perfect opportunities to start a book we have been postponing for a while. For this reason, we have gathered for you, a list of books to read during this short but valuable time.
 

1- The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This masterpiece was the first airport book I purchased from D&R before a flight from Izmir to Istanbul. It is such a page-turner that we guarantee you won’t understand how 45 minutes went by. It is one of the storybooks that everyone wants to read, but simply can’t find the time to. Don’t be deceived by its cover as a storybook, it addresses people of all ages.

Prologue

“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” “What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.  

2- Letter from an Unknown Woman - Stefan Zweig

Zweig once more invites his readers to an unprecedented journey in the human psychology. It is possible that he aimed to define the unknown aspects of “absolute love” at the end of this journey!

Prologue

We only meet the female protagonist of the “Letter from an Unknown Woman” as the writer of a lengthy letter. The “sender” of this letter, which was written to the only man this woman has ever loved, is unknown. There is only a single salutation at the top of the letter: “To you, who has never known me”. This woman consents to live her only passion as an “unknown”, on her own. This love story does not have two “sides”, but only one “side”. Can this be called real love? 

3- The Stranger - Albert Camus 

As one of the most translated and most reviewed books and still a best-seller, “The Stranger” is a must-read, if you haven’t already. If you too experience many feelings at the same time and feel to have estranged from yourself from time to time, this might be the book to help you find yourself.

Prologue

Living the most meaningless phenomena of the “existence” in a world reigned by death in the most absurd disorder, the protagonist of this novel, “Meursault” is not a symbolic hero but a “Stranger” without a name; this lacking identity is the image of an empty consciousness that cannot configure and restructure what it perceives from the reality but tries to catch the echoes of it. His carelessness and passiveness are the products of this empty conscious. The Stranger owes its ravishing power to the sense of tragedy it contains: The constant seeking of a meaning that is never caught, the conflict between the conscious and social world... 

4- The Devil Within - Sabahattin Ali 

We believe it to be one of the best works of the writer. The book is a classic Sabahattin Ali page-turner that tells the crisis one lives within, his own internal feuds, his feeling of being trapped, and how self-talk is contradictory. 

Prologue

“I have finally found a permanent culprit for the words and actions I have not known if I have wanted, but claimed to have not wanted them if they end up badly: I called it the Devil within; I held it responsible for all my actions, for which I was afraid to take responsibility and instead of spitting myself in the face, I thought myself to be worthy of compassion and attention as an underdog who was wronged by the faith. But what devil are we talking about, my friend? This is merely a fabrication of our pride and foolishness...”

5- The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

Published for the first time in a monthly journal called "Die Weissen Blaetter” in 1915, The Metamorphosis is Kafka’s longest and best-known novella. Even though it was published over a century ago, it is still one of the most read books around the world.

Prologue

The Metamorphosis starts by telling the story of textile salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes up one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and turns into a marvelous exposition pushing the limits between reality and fiction.