5 Best Airport Reads & Where to buy a book at Brisbane Airport

Books and travel have multiple things in common: they can transport you to a time and place far away, they open up your eyes to the wonders of the world and most of all, they create memories to look back on.

The words of books are so powerful that some of the sentences are etched into my brain forever (it was the best of times, it was the worst of times), yet for some reason I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. 

Books are undoubtedly one of the cheapest tickets to see the world through the eyes of a character, but also one of the cheapest (and lightest) thrills to pack for your holiday too. 

Whether you’re looking for page-turning action during your holiday or something to pass the time while you transit, follow our tips for picking up an airport read at Brisbane Airport. 

What exactly is an airport read?

Sure, you can pick up a biography, thriller or romance novel, but there is a special category of reading that’s only brought to life in airports - airport reads.

That is, a book that’s not so much defined by the complexity of its plot or characters, but the speed at which you can read it. 

The idea of this genre is for it to be fast-paced enough to capture your attention through the white noise of transit and engaging enough to keep your attention through take-off and landing. 

Given there’s over 129,864,880 books in this world (at least by Google’s last count), it’s safe to say there are so many books and so little time. 

According to the retailers within the terminal, the following books are 2021 best-sellers:

1. The Dictionary of Lost Words (Pip Williams)
2. The Sentinel (Lee Child and Andrew Child)
3. The Dry (Jane Harper)
4. The Happiest Man on Earth (Eddie Jaku)
5. Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)

Good Reads, the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations, collated their 90-million member’s top Airport-reads, listing these top five page-tuners for your next transit:

1. The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins)
2. The Girl Who Played with Fire (Stieg Larsson)
3. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
4. Angels & Demons (Dan Brown)
5. Inferno (Dan Brown)

If you've read all these titles and are looking for a new release, the airport retailers recommend the following titles, both currently selling well:

1. Still (Matt Nable)
2. The President's Daughter (Bill Clinton and James Patterson)

Where to buy a book in the Domestic Terminal

After a recent $40 million redevelopment of the Domestic Terminal, all newsagencies within the terminal have been branded into one – [email protected]. 

Regardless of which airline you’re travelling with – Qantas, Jetstar or Virgin – each [email protected] store stocks the same paperback titles, so bookworms there is no need to store-hop. 

Books are organised according to best-sellers and genre-categories, so you can pick up a page-turner that will transport you to another world faster than any plane ride ever could.

Where to buy a book in the International Terminal?

After you pass the yellow gates and go through security, News Travels stocks an array of paperbacks categorised according to best sellers and genre. Interestingly, ‘self-improvement’ style books (Barefoot Investor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope) dominate a majority of the best-sellers, suggesting most BNE travellers like to use their downtime for goal setting and making life-changing habits.

Prefer to read digitally? 

If you’ve got your own iPad or Kindle, put your transit time and Brisbane Airport’s free WiFi to use downloading a few books to get you through your flight.

If you don’t have the technology just yet, take your wallet to Lotte Duty Free to treat yo’self with a new tech-toy. 

Print or digital, one thing is for certain - “the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go” – Dr Seuss. 

Do you have a page-turning airport read to suggest? Leave a comment on our Facebook post:

CREDITS

• Feature image:  Make your next holiday read a page turner with Brisbane Airport | Photo by: Media Mortar
• For other transit time busting tips see: 12 ways to spend time in transit at Brisbane Airport
• Want to read your way around the world: Add these 5 book shops to your travel bucket list

With reduced passengers in our terminals and the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on trading, airport retailers are continuously adjusting their opening hours and staff levels. Please check individual listings here for the most up to date information on what’s open at each terminal and their trading hours.