This week, it occurred to us that when the Kindle revolution comes, we won’t know what people are reading in public (without invading their personal space, anyway). It’s tough enough to gracefully circle a commuter on the train so we can get a clear view of their book cover. If this Big Brother Book Club seems a little light, either people have adopted their phones as e-readers more quickly than we thought they would, or we’re losing our stealthy spying skills.
Squinting down a car on the N train, we caught a glimpse of Running with the Demon , the first book in Terry Brooks‘ Word & Void series. We’re generally not huge fantasy fans, but there’s something sort of endearing about an eighth grade girl named Nest with magical powers. Also spotted: One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China by James MacGregor, in the hands of a suit who is no doubt seeking new markets now that ours has collapsed. A dapper young dude in a driving cap was engrossed in his copy of Tree of Smoke – it’s always good to see Denis Johnson getting some love.
Changing trains in Brooklyn at Atlantic Ave, we saw a woman clutching a copy of The Candy Shop by Kiki Swinson, the “scandalous” story of a successful professional woman who develops a drug problem and winds up on the street, put out by the aptly named Melodrama Publishing.
We saw a guy almost to the end of Flannery O’Connor’s Complete Stories ; perhaps he’s preparing for Brad Gooch’s upcoming biography? We also saw Children Are from Heaven , a parenting tome from the author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, and finally, a small red and yellow copy of something called El Ingles Conversacional. Way to make productive use of your commute.