This could turn me, bookaholic that I am, into a less-frequent flier: Ross Mayfield reports that a TSA screener informed him not only about the ban on lighters, but also a ban on books:
When he pulled a cigarette lighter out of my bag he mentioned the forthcoming ban, how you could carry four packs of matches and the whole idea was to prevent quickly lighting explosives (like that idiot with evil shoes). When he pulled out two books he mentioned that right now you can only have four books and on the 14th you can only have two. He didn't have any explanation for this, and I can't even fathom the purpose.
The very idea of running out of reading material on a flight makes my eyes itch. My favorite part is in the comments area, where one enterprising soul says, "Can't you just stick some matches into books #3-6 and call them matchbooks? That way you could get six books total through."
Don't you feel so much safer knowing someone that can't tell a matchbook from a Vicki Stiefel novel is keeping those book-wielding terrorists at bay? (Full disclosure: Vicki is a friend and former colleague. I'm about three-quarters of the way through her latest, The Dead Stone, and if you like thrillers, you'll like this one.)