Books - the workaround
I feel terribly sorry for airplane passengers who can no longer carry books. Toothpaste, lotion, and lip gloss I can do without for the duration of a flight, but forgoing a book would be a true hardship. There should be a business opportunity here. I’d pay to have a book of my choice waiting for me when I board a plane. (And I’d pay to pick up a survival packet of basic toiletries when I deboard, too, but that’s off the subject.)
Reading material goes with me everywhere - doctor’s offices, shopping trips, yes, even the bathroom. Though Dark-Haired Daughter shows no particular interest in reading beyond what school requires of her, much to my chagrin, Catapult Kid is as much a reader as I am. So it simply wouldn’t do when he wasn’t allowed to have books or magazines at the Academy. Cell phones, soft drinks and MP3 players one may live without. But books are essential. Besides the 8 -10 pages of news I’m printing out for him every couple of days, there is also a book I’m tearing into chapter-length sections and mailing piece by piece in letters that require three stamps. These seem to be getting through. (Packages are inspected.)
When I first wrote that I’d be doing this, Catapult Kid wrote back and said, “Don’t tear up a book! That’s crazy!” But I sent the preface and first chapter anyway, followed shortly by the second chapter and now the third - Michael T. Klare’s Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. (Catapult Kid takes little interest in namby-pamby lightweight stuff; no, you have to give him history or world affairs - meaty, relevant realities to ponder.) In the letter I received this morning, he wrote that he’d conspired with one of his teachers. I can send his Naval Institute Proceedings magazines to her, and she will sneak them to him. In addition to the usual sorts of requests - pens, petty cash, highlighters, and a new phone card - he notes, “By the way, keep sending book.”
Will do.
Migs wrote:
If tearing up pages is what it takes to defy these new security measures, then let’s all do so. How can one endure hours upon hours of flight with only the “To all passengers: steps in case of emergency” manual to read? Cheers!
Posted on 13-Aug-06 at 4:01 am | Permalink
DrHGuy wrote:
As a fellow sufferer from abibliophobia, I sympathize. I have handled vacation snafus such as missed flights, hotel reservations made months in advance and confirmed the day before arrival that dissipated when I appeared at the reception desk, and acute illnesses in third world countries with some degree of grace and competence. Polishing off all the books and magazines I had packed on day four of a six day trip to the hinterlands in Mexico, however, was catastrophic. My wife and I regained our equilibrium from our state of panic only when we finally discovered a curio shop with a five day old Las Angeles Times for which we gladly forked over eight dollars.
Posted on 13-Aug-06 at 6:51 pm | Permalink
mindspin wrote:
I can’t even commit to a long check-out line at the grocery without first finding a magazine with an article or two I’d like to skim, so I can just imagine the plight of the book-loving traveler caught without reading material in the hinterlands or on a trans-oceanic flight. It wouldn’t do.
Posted on 14-Aug-06 at 6:00 am | Permalink