There is no frigate like...

I rediscovered fiction! I was stuck in St. Louis, my flight delayed by five hours; the TVs at all the gates were showing nothing but stories from Lebanon, and I was still reeling from the previous day's state supreme court ruling. I stumbled into the chain HMS bookstore, wanting escape. But all the books there were either Dan Brown or Danielle Steele, or similarly marketed. I didn't want anything that could remind me of current events or politics or anything else that would make me have to think. And on the other hand, I didn't want to be seen buying a trashy romance novel.

Luckily, Lambert also had a non-chain bookstore, with a used book section. It rocked. So while being delayed as well as during the flight, I read a medieval mystery and a collection of Agatha Christie's short stories.

It was awesome!

Medieval history was a minor requirement for the history major, so unlike everything that happened after the late-15th century, I have no personal interest in it. I could get caught up in the made-up intrigues without overly critiquing the historical accuracy. And really, I did get caught up in all the drama. I couldn't put Dragon's Lair down. It also reawakened some memories of a particularly enthusiastic course discussion on Eleanor of Aquitane, and on my trip back I tried to find an airport bookstore with a biography, to no avail.

I used to love mysteries, before I ran off to college and got politicized. In middle school I read most of Agatha Christie's books and many of her short stories. But I don't remember coming across this particular collection, so it was a great find for $2 in the airport I wasn't scheduled to fly through initially.

And I didn't know what was going on in the world for five days. That was the best.