What America reads in the air
Airport reading isn't known for being deep, introspective stuff. Bookstores in terminals fill their racks with light, entertaining fare: thrillers, mysteries and romances that won't stretch your brain at 30,000 feet.
This is all by design, of course. Air travel becomes one long series of distractions we create for ourselves, and travelers need a book with a plot that's easy to follow as they're being jostled by other passengers and (maybe) offered complimentary peanuts. A time for Proust it is not.
The idea that travelers might prefer more superficial fare dates back to times long before airports. In France, pulpy paperbacks are called "roman de gare" — train-station novels.
So what titles kept air travelers company this year? The advent of e-books has made that a trickier question — it's impossible to say which titles were downloaded for travel and which for general consumption. The bestseller lists from Hudson Booksellers, however, show some of 2014's in-flight favorites.
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Hudson has stores in more than 25 U.S. airports, where they serve millions of travelers per year headed to and from cities across the country and around the world.
The bestseller lists don't change much by airport; the same few titles seem to play musical chairs in the top few spots: Serial novelists John Grisham and Dan Brown duke it out with popular young adult titles, while Charles Duhigg's "The Power of Habit" claims several number-one spots.
Airport Bestsellers
The top-selling titles of 2014 at Hudson Booksellers airport locations
LAX: Los Angeles
1. "The Racketeer" by John Grisham
2. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn
3. "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green
4. "Inferno" by Dan Brown
5. "Divergent" by Veronica Roth
JFK: New York City
1. "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by Charles Duhigg
2. "The Racketeer" by John Grisham
3. "Inferno" by Dan Brown
4. "Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections" by Patrick Smith
5. "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" by Susannah Cahalan
ORD: Chicago (O'Hare)
1. "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by Charles Duhigg
2. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn
3. "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" by Susannah Cahalan
4. "Divergent" by Veronica Roth
5. "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green
DFW: Dallas
1. "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by Charles Duhigg
2. "The Racketeer" by John Grisham
3. "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green
4. "Divergent" by Veronica Roth
5. "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" by Susannah Cahalan
BOS: Boston
1. "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by Charles Duhigg
2. "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" by Susannah Cahalan
3. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter
4. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn
5. "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green
The power of Hollywood on this list can't be ignored: Three of the most popular titles were made into films this year: "Gone Girl," "The Fault In Our Stars" and "Divergent." The memoir "Brain on Fire" is also headed for the big screen in 2016.
The stories they tell
There are a few outliers, though. Looking at the top 25 bestselling titles for the busiest airports, there are a few 10,000-foot-view trends:
Boston's is the only airport still delighted by the debauchery of "The Wolf on Wall Street."
"50 Shades of Grey" clings to a top spot at LAX, if not anywhere else.
JFK's travelers are digging deep with "10 Must-Reads on Leadership."
Travelers passing through Chicago's O'Hare Airport are brushing up on their American history — a copy of The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution sits at Number Seven on the bestsellers list, just above John Grisham.
But how much does airport reading really differ from what we read the rest of the year?
Quite a bit. None of Amazon's top five bestsellers appear anywhere on Hudson's lists. Of course, Amazon's bestsellers are all hardcover books — and what travelers really want is something lightweight. Literally and figuratively.
Amazon's 2014 Bestsellers
1. "The Invention of Wings" by Sue Monk Kidd
2. "Gray Mountain" by John Grisham
3. "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
4. "Personal" (Jack Reacher Series) by Lee Child
5. "Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty