Airport novel(s) represent a literary genre that is defined not so much by its plot or cast of stock characters, as by the social function it serves. An airport novel is typically a fairly long but fast-paced boilerplate genre-fiction novel commonly offered by airport newsstands, "read for pace and plot, not elegance of phrasing". Designed to meet the demands of a very specific market, airport novels are superficially engaging while not being necessarily profound as they are usually written to be more entertaining than philosophically challenging.