I've enjoyed reading Patrick Smith's regular column at Salon.com called Ask the Pilot. He's a commercial pilot who writes a regular question-and-answer type column for the news site that addresses people's common questions about flying. It's a good mix of technical flight explanations and opinionated editorials about the airline industry and modern day flight.

I recently noticed that he's published a book filled with this type of writing, so of course I bought a copy. From what I've read so far, it's highly entertaining and educational. If you fly on a regular basis, you'll learn a lot about what's going on behind the scenes. Which pilots are most respected, what flights pilots like the best, why routes are arranged the way they are, why your plane suddenly aborted a landing, and so on. It's an honest behind-the-scenes view from the pilot's perspective.

Smith's own opinions on which planes are the most attractive and the dire straits of modern aircraft aesthetic are insightful and very entertaining. Anyhow, I look forward to getting to the back cover.