I am a flying fanatic and so really enjoyed this book. I have read that the author has also written more on the subject so I look forward to exploring more of his work.

This is Schaberg’s third book on airports. I get the feeling this volume is a compilation of bits and pieces left off of the earlier efforts. Recommended only if you are a fanatic about flying.

All airports are alike, and yet each has its own unique eccentricities. Airport passengers live in a time separate from the outside world. Airports have their own culture to which people must adapt, much as if you were in a foreign country.
Such are the conclusions a reader will draw from Airportness, the latest book by Christopher Schaberg; the author of two previous books on the nature of airports. In this volume, Schaberg embarks on a round-trip, cross-county flight and ruminates on various aspects of his trip.
It is hard to grasp for whom this book is intended. Potential patrons looking for practical advice will find no help here. Those hoping for a John McPhee style investigation will discover no interviews, no historical anecdotes, no statistics and no human interest angle. The book isn’t particularly funny, heartwarming or suspenseful.
What we get instead, is a series of short, impressionistic essays, which would be fine if Schaberg’s insights weren’t so superficial and trite. We learn, for example, that the bathroom is the only place on a plane where there is privacy. They are tiny, and you can’t stay in one for long. We are also informed that seat armrests are uncomfortable and probably unnecessary. Schaberg reports that inflight magazines are tacky and full of advertising. Airport restaurants are dirty, serve overpriced and bland tasting food. You do not need to read a book to learn these things.
What is most disappointing about Airportness is the fact that the critical issues are left unaddressed. Only a passing mention is made of the disruptive TSA screenings and their questionable effectiveness. The increasing reliance of our airline systems on computer software is not mentioned at all. A single glitch in a single program can shut an entire airport down for hours, leading to hundreds of cancellations. A domino effect can then result causing delays around the country.
The vulnerability of our airports to cyberattacks or just incompetent programming should at least rate a mention in a book like this.
The author writes at some length about Denver International, but never mentions Blue Mustang, the terrifyingly ugly, 32 foot-tall equine, fiberglass sculpture with blazing red eyes that unnerves visitors. The fact that the artist, Luis Jimenez, was killed working on the sculpture when it toppled over on top of him gives the work an even more sinister aura.
This is Schaberg’s third book on airports. I get the feeling this volume is a compilation of bits and pieces left off of the earlier efforts. Recommended only if you are a fanatic about flying.

This book's topic was quite interesting, but I felt as if the author's style of writing detracted from the story. It was OK, but it felt a little too stream of consciousness at times and some good points were lost to minutiae. Still, I think a number of travelers would enjoy this detailed look on how all encompassing air travel has grown.

This book was interesting (in a good way). It will give you a whole new appreciation for what goes on at the airport and the people who make that happen.

I've read a lot of airport-related books, including Schaberg's previous books, The Textual Life of Airports and The End of Airports. This isn't a behind-the-scenes look at the airport and we don't go underground to investigate the baggage handling or upstairs to the control tower or on the apron to talk with the ramp agents. Schaberg is strictly a passenger for this book and invites us along to see the airport through the eyes of a philosopher/former airport employee.

He makes a lot of thoughtful observations, in an almost stream of consciousness manner, investing rather a lot of meaning into an ad on an old boarding pass, for instance, and considering the phenomenon of small birds who've managed to get trapped in the departures terminal and taken up residence. He also shares his pet peeves, which I found less compelling. He is mystified by the popularity of "fishing shirts" among both travelers and airline employees. Once I figured out what a fishing shirt was, it seemed to me like a good garment for traveling in, wrinkle-resistant and quick drying. He is, at the time of writing the book, obsessed with and outraged by Donald Trump, often inserting a Trump-related comment almost randomly. It's a bit distracting.

I did enjoy his detours into airport-themed art and movies, which reminded me how much I liked his book about "reading" the airport (The Textual Life of Airports). In fact, I would recommend that someone considering reading Airportedness read The Textual Life of Airports first.

(Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for a digital review copy.)

I was hoping for much more from this book. I thought it was going to be a behind the scenes look at the airport, but it turned out to be a look at a typical traveler's experience, with an eye toward noticing the sublime. That might have been an interesting perspective for a portion of the book, but it is hard to stretch that for 176 pages. Plus, the author spent a lot of time carping about his experiences, his fellow passengers' lack of awareness, and Donald Trump. I'm not a Trump fan, but talking about that is only going to age the book and doesn't add substance to the dialogue. The idea of "airportness" reminded me of that scene from Mean Girls when one of them was trying to make "fetch" a catch phrase -- not working well here either. The book did make me think about some aspects of the air journey, like the departures entrance and our fellow avian travelers, but there was too much else to wade through in getting to those points. Nevertheless, it is these moments that earned the book a second star from me.

I thought "Airportness" would be an interesting read, since I travel a lot and it appeared from the synopsis that it might have some interesting stories in it. However, it appears to just be the author's attempt to justify his study of air travel as his academic area of research. As a scientist who has done serious medical research, this seems to me a rather weak area of focus. [I'm guessing it allows him to deduct his travel for pleasure as part of his research. Nice gig if you can get it. ] The book, however, was not interesting. It simply takes the reader through the various steps of air travel, with an attempt to make serious conclusions. I found it boring and tried to scan instead. Even that didn't hold my interest, so I gave up halfway through. I was hoping to read some funny or unusual anecdotes, but didn't find any. I would not recommend this book.

I really liked this different way of approaching an airport and looking at them and flight. I like travelling but airports make me nervous I will take my next trip with this book in mind so hopefully the trip will be less stressful

While I really enjoyed all the information, there was ALOT of information! Well worth the time to read.