ghost of flight 401  doesnt have to much action but is a great read. basically about an eastern L1011 that crashed in florida in the 80's due to a few factors, then there were reports of ghost sightings of the crew of that flight who died, appearing on flights of L1011's that used pieces from the crash. the author goes in search of as much info on this as possible including company coverups and all sorts, its a great read, and you can pick it up for about £5 if that.
plus its all a true story, well the crash and investigation is, you can decide the results for yourself
its kind of a difficult book to describe much better to just read it.
plus it isnt to long to

I have a few good ones.
Flight: 100 Years of Aviation by RG Grant
Avro Aircraft and Cold War Aviation by Randall Whitcomb
An Illustrated History of the RAF by Roy Conyers Nesbit
The Illustrated Directory of Modern Commercial Aircraft by Gunter Endres
The Illustrated Directory of Fighters by Mike Spick
The Illustrated Directory of Fighting Aircraft of WWII by Bill Gunston

The Illustrated Directory series is probably the best for vacatins as they are the size of the average paper back. They're technical books list different aircraft. For each aircraft they list technical data and a brief history of how it came into existance. Another book I had about Aviation was The Soldier Spies by W.E.B. Griffin. It's about soldiers sent on a recon mission to find information on the Luftwaffe development of the A-Bomb during ww2. Fiction of course.

BTW, if your looking for a book you can't get in Britain. Try Amazon.com in the US or Chapters.ca in Canada.

If you want inspiration, then Sir Douglas Baaders Reach For The Sky is good.
If you like Vulcans Tim Lamings The Vulcan Story is a must (and a great read).
If you are as mad as me, and want a book that'll last all holiday and fill your head with technical knowledge beyond belief, then it has to be Spitfre: The History by Eric B. Morgan and Edward Shacklady (but it does way about 7kgs!).
However in the fiction front there is just too much to choose from, some good, some absolute rubbish that makes you wonder if the author has ever seen an aeroplane let alone been in one. However for good fun the Firefox and Firefox Down by Craig Thomas are quite good, in fat all his books containing the character Gant involve lots of aviation.

Ozzy

And, a nice repeating video of the TWA 800 flight would sure stir things up, wouldn't it?

(fiction)Firefox and Firefox down are good, North Cape by Joe Poyer is good (Kinda like Firefox down but better).
(non-Fiction)Aircrew by Bruce Lewis (crews accounts of Bomber Comand and 8th Airforce ops in WWII, Fight Pilots by John E Lewis, pilots acounts from WW1 to the Gulf both combat ops and POW expeiriences, Fighter Wing by Tom Clancey.

And if you really want to get confused, Fighter Combat Tactics and Maneuvering by Robert L Shaw. Written by a fighter pilot for fighter pilots 8)

a recent 'JANES all the world aircraft'