From what I remember, the book was both humorous and fairly well written. And preferable to the movie. The storyline is supposed to be about a guy named Ryan who lives his life in the air, so to speak. He is rented out by companies to fire their employees; he's home maybe 20 days a year. He is all alone and has no relationship with anyone, not even his family. He is forced to engage with his family, however, in honor of his youngest sister's wedding. Yes, Alex is there, but the relationship goes no where. But, in the end, he's still alone, but he got what he wanted: he hit 10 million frequent flyer miles.
The movie, however, made it more about his romance with Alex and how Alex will never love him because she has a family existing outside of the airport. This is exceedingly obvious by the DVD cover. Also, the producers threw in another character to accompany Ryan on his firing trips. You lose the lonliness and isolatedness of the world Ryan lives in. Sure, there's the Empty Backpack promotion he does emphasizes the lonliness, but not in the same way. Especially when he abandons his philosophy to go after Alex. He doesn't even care about his miles anymore.
Overall, I enjoyed both the movie and the book for it's realistic look into how a person surrounded by people can still live in an isolated, lonely world all by him/herself. And they can be okay with living in that world. But, at the same time, they can hate their lives too because they realize how lonely they are.
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