On a recent trip to San Diego, I was horrified to find myself on the plane with nothing to read. I had mistakenly placed my book in my suitcase, which was stowed overhead, and I feared retrieving it. It was heavy enough that I’d enlisted a burly young man to help me hoist it.

Although I don’t like reading on a Kindle, I’d loaded it up the night before the flight, just in case, but naturally had left it at home. I’d read the New York Times and finished the crossword (which I always slip into my purse when flying) before leaving for the airport, and cut things too close to have time to visit the excellent Compass Books at the airport.

Frankly, my travel skills — which always include having more than I could possibly read readily at hand — were rusty after not going anywhere for a couple of years.

There wasn’t even an airplane magazine in the seat pocket. I was jonesing. I so wistfully eyed my neighbor’s Chronicle Sporting Green that he finally offered it. I read it cover to cover, its contents like a foreign language. A guy across the aisle ignored the Wednesday New York Times food section, tucking it into the seat pocket without a glance. I leaned across and asked for it. I was shameless. And this was a one-hour flight!

Back in the old days, one occasionally engaged in conversation with the passenger in the adjacent seat. Not anymore. Everyone is glued to their devices.

There are those who work on airplanes. Not me. When I’m aloft, it’s a vacation from life. I dread the day they permit cell phone usage on planes: some guy arguing with his wife, a woman conducting a business deal — no thanks.

Somehow being on a plane allows me more suspension of disbelief than I have when on terra firma. I can better enjoy magical realism and twisted plots. As for movies, I totally abandon my critical judgment and not only choose but cry at Hollywood tearjerkers.

This is a phenomenon that has received serious study. Stephen Legg, professor of ergonomics at Massey University in New Zealand, has researched the impact of mild hypoxia (low oxygen levels in your tissues) due to cabin pressure. This may go some way toward explaining why we often find ourselves crying at films in flight.

But back to books. If you’re wise enough to make sure you have some books readily available in your bag, here are some recommendations on the topic of travel.

Most of them are novels. Of course there are always practical books to read before traveling. These days I prefer a little history and sense of the contemporary city I’m visiting. Instead of following an Arthur Frommer guide everywhere, I prefer to wander and follow my nose.

Mysteries also seem more satisfying on a plane (hypoxia again?). Anything by Agatha Christie, Louise Penny, Tana French or Jane Harper fits the bill.

Then there are books related to your destination.

• Going to Spain? George Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway, “The Pilgrimage” by Paulo Coelho, “The Dinner Guest” by Gabriela Ybarra, “A Heart So White” by Javier Marias, and “Leaving the Atocha Station” by Ben Lerner. (Note: Many of my feminist friends refuse to read Hemingway. I say boo-hoo for you.)

• To Italy? Any of Donna Leon’s Inspector Brunetti series, “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante, “Still Life” by Sarah Winman, “The Leopard” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, and Helena Attlee’s “The Land Where Lemons Grow.”

• To Paris? “Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs” (the story of the famed Shakespeare and Co. bookstore) by Jeremy Mercer; Jane Smiley’s “Perestroika in Paris”; “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr; and “Henry and June” by Anais Nin. (I specify Paris because it’s its own world, so unlike other areas of France it could be in another country. Of course there are a profusion of books about expats fixing up crumbling houses and adorable but frustrating local craftsmen — no thanks.)

• To Mexico? “PedroPáramo” by Juan Rulfo, “The Death of Artemio Cruz” by Carlos Fuentes, Valeria Luiselli’s “Faces in the Crowd,” “Recollections of Things to Come” by Elena Garro, Carmen Boullosa’s “Leaving Tabasco.”

•最后,最近去摩洛哥旅行之前,我ordered Paul Bowles’ “The Spider’s House,” Leila Lalami’s “The Secret Son” and “The Sacred Night” by Tahar Ben Jelloun.

What are some of your favorite destination travel books? Please drop me a line and tell me.