Tip of the Spear

Having a bit of free time with little to do while waiting for things to happen in Kuwait I picked up my first John Grisham book, The King of Torts. It was quite a page turner and I was hooked. I managed to get through three of his others, The Summons, The Brethren, and The Last Juror, all while still deployed. I took a short break but decided to check out a few of Grisham's other books. Starting this past week with A Painted House.

So I was going to spend this post reviewing the book in some way, but what fun would that be? In summary its a decent book that I didn't want to end, and when it did end it was abrupt and without resolution. Needless to say I was left wanting.

But while I was reading A Painted House on my airplane ride from Baltimore to Louisville a guy sitting next to me, seeing that I was reading it, chimed in with how great the book it is. "Its my favorite Grisham... yada yada yada."

So this got me thinking... Why do people find it appropriate to talk about and judge what other people are reading on an airplane? This isn't an activity people normally engage in in other locations. I guess the need for small talk is too overwhelming for some people at 20000 feet. I've caught myself doing this to someone else before with a Harry Potter book; like a complete stranger needs me to give him that boost so he can get through the novel. In my most abrasive of these encounters, I was reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, when I was on a trip as a new Lieutenant, when I happen to sit next to somebody reading the Dali Lama. I still want to punch that guy in the face...