I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, the best distraction from the indignity of travel when you are captive in a plane or car or train or bus or whatever… is a book.
As screens now are especially ubiquitous on planes, I look around at the folks being diverted by episodes of say, “The Big Bang Theory,” and know that they are just people on a plane watching “The Big Bang Theory.” I, on the other hand, am being transported into an alternate world by reading a book.
We had some other methods of having old-fashioned, analog fun when I was a kid, games like “punch buggy,” which involved keeping an eye out for Volkswagen Beetles, vans and the elusive Karmann Ghia, and then when one was spotted, delivering a punch to the arm of your backseat companion, one punch per Beetle, five per van, and 10 for the Karmann Ghia.
Despite the risk of violence escalation, it might be preferable for kids to play punch buggy, rather than one of those phone games where you mindlessly paw at the screen. With punch buggy, at least you have to have some awareness of the world around you.
On a recent short plane trip, I had an even deeper dive into childhood nostalgia than a game of punch buggy thanks to the return of the old “Yes & Know” invisible ink books, which have been recently resurrected by a small, Ann Arbor-based company, Tree Town Toys.
Back in 2022, in this very space, I lamented the loss of these books of games like trivia, battleship, hangman and other activities, but now they’re back in a wholly faithful recreation, including those orange-capped pens that threaten to dry out the second they’re exposed to the air.
As the guy next to me fell asleep while watching what appeared to be a collection of the greatest kicks to the head in UFC history, I happily plugged away with my “Yes & Know.” The books are famously geared to any age, 7 to 77, and I had some honest-to-goodness fun, though perhaps some of this was steeped in nostalgia for the many hours I spent on them as a kid.
If you’re interested in keeping a child occupied with something other than a phone, they may be worth a look.
Playing these games requires some behaviors that we should hope to foster in our young people. You must read directions. In many games, your choices require some deliberation to maximize the chance of success. Knowledge is rewarded. Haste and thoughtlessness are punished. As with the originals, the books come in different themes about animals, space, mysteries and classic games that can fit the specific needs of the kid.
At a fundamental level, something many of us appear to be lacking, regardless of age, is the ability to pay attention and to focus. Spending hours scrolling on a phone is the opposite of focus.
After years of allowing technology to colonize our time and our spaces — including schools — we recently seem to be waking up to the potential for things like smartphones to separate us from our sense of connection and engagement. There’s a near-universal consensus that phones have no utility in school settings. Why, then, do we let them have so much presence in other parts of our lives, including the lives of the very young?
Look, I’m no moralizer, and if a child is a reader, I’m still going to say that you can’t beat a book for passing the time, but it’s nice to be reminded there are other alternatives available that don’t involve bruising an arm.
John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com.
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The Payback” by Kashana Cauley
2. “So Far Gone” by Jess Walter
3. “The Master” by Colm Tóibín
4. “I Leave it Up to You” by Jinwoo Chong
5. “The Poison Machine” by Robert Lloyd
— Laura F., Oak Park
I’m going to be writing about this book in more detail in a future column, but for now, let it be known that “The Wilderness” by Angela Flournoy is a good fit for Laura, and lots of other people.
1. “Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King
2. “Summer of Night” by Dan Simmons
3. “Rookie” by Jerry Jenkins
4. “Replay” by Ken Grimwood
6. “Sugar on the Bones” by Joe R. Lansdale
— Matt S., Arlington Heights
I think Matt will be satisfyingly creeped out by Dan Chaon’s “Ill Will.” Chaon has a new book, “One of Us,” that’s at the top of my TBR pile.
1. “Janis Joplin, Her Life And Times” by Deborah Landau
2. “In the Garden of The North American Martyrs” by Tobias Wolff
3. “Bleachers” by John Grisham
4. “Orchidelirium” by Deborah Landau
5. “This Boy’s Life: A Memoir” by Tobias Wolff
— Michael S., Bolingbrook
I’m going to take a bit of a stab in the dark and see if Michael takes to Ron Carlson’s “Return to Oakpine.”
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
