Reading alone

So flying for 7-8 hours gave me time to finish a couple books I've been reading. Between the peanuts and soda, Travis kept busy with his iPod and me with my books. The first one I needed to tackle was Kiterunner. I started reading this about 2 months ago. It started off lovely, all about a young Afgani boy's childhood with his servant/best friend. He talked about all his memories in terms of smell and taste (i.e. "air like cherry water") Very poetic, right? But, after one night's reading, I was scared to pick it up again. Reading before bed is suppose to help me sleep, not keep me awake with anxiety. He was as good painting the horrifying scenes as the pastoral. So, anyhow, I was too worried to push on. I packed it hoping I could gain the courage over the Atlantic to finish it. I started reading again and couldn't put it down. Travis reassured me "You have to keep reading...No I will not tell you what happens next." "No the boy doesn't die, just keep reading."

Needless to say, I finished the book. It was perfect. Between chapters I was asking for more napkins. And by the end, I'm pretty sure the guy next to us thought I was a complete freak. But, that's OK. (Well, on second thought he was reading a book about Marie Antoinette, so I think we may have been on the same wavelength)

Then on a layover in Newark I bought "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss The book jacket reads: "Fourteen year old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing that she might discover it in an old book her mother is lvingly translating, she sets out in search of its author. Across New York an old man named Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives..."

OK, so this book had the opposite effect on me. The protaganist of this novel is an elderly Jewish immigrant who's constantly worried whether "today's the day". I was laughing at all his little yiddish jokes. Luckily it was not a full flight and I had the row to myself. Just the sleeping lady across the aisle, I was trying not to wake-up. Then the author does a u-turn and shows you his earlier life in Poland before the occupation. He was in love with a girl who's parents were wise enough to get her to America. Unbeknownst to either of them, she was pregnant and later had his son. He finally gets to New York to find her, and she's married to another man. So heartbreaking...there was a passage about how people are sometimes like a tree that has leaned up against a fence and grown around the fence. Once the fence is removed there is still a space. I tried to find the exact passage, but no luck. So, maybe we can read this together? I'm not sure where this one is going.

Also, I read Evening cover-to-cover on the first flight. Also a cryer.

I think it's time for something funny. Any suggestions?
I wonder what's on TV...