The next seat over

Do you spy?

I realized I couldn’t help it while on a plane about a week ago. I’m curious. When the guy next to me unfolds a newspaper, I glance over his shoulder to see which one he’s reading. Books are the same story. Checking out the reading list of random people is actually one of my favorite things about flying. (When you’re 6 foot 6, there’s little to look forward to in a coach class airplane seat.)

I wondered what I’d find as I ducked into my 12:55 a.m. flight. The red eye. What are the insomniacs going to be reading?

The answer is nothing. I quickly remembered from my days flying ultra cheap as a college sports writer, people sleep on late/early flights, or at least they do if they aren’t seated next to a 6 month old. Self-hypnosis mantra: “I love flying, I love flying, I love...”

The connection was scheduled to take off at a reasonable hour. I found my seat and said hello to the woman seated in the center seat.

“I have to warn you I hate flying,” she said.

Uh huh.

This flight was a first for me. I’ve seen plenty of people who would rather sleep than read on a plane, but I’ve never had anyone who actually prevented me from reading. Pretty soon I was explaining every sound and shimmy of the plane: Yes, ma'am, I’m positive that was the sound of the landing gear going up. Yes, that does seem like too small of a dose of Xanax. No, don’t worry, lots of people have squeezed my forearm on airplanes.

I gave up on readers by the time of my return flights. No readers on either side of me on the first leg. No books, no magazines, no newspapers. Only headphones.

I slumped into my seat on the last flight of the trip, and tried to wedge my knees against the seat back so the person in front of me couldn’t recline, (My space, buddy. My space.) and shoved my carry on under the seat. I finally glanced at the middle-aged woman next to me. A book! Unbelievable.

After pretending to casually glance out the window a half dozen times, I finally caught the title: <a href="http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/memory_keeper.html"; target="_blank">The Memory Keeper’s Daughter</a> by Kim Edwards. I’ll have to add it to my list.

I doubt anyone spied on my reading, but in case your curious, I brought <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780767911283"; target="_blank">The Backbone of the World</a> by Frank Clifford.