This week a schoolgirl sat next to me on the MTR reading Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, the 1993 Booker Prize winner by Roddy Doyle. A young man was reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown at Kowloon Bay station. I attended an event at the Asia World Expo where I saw a Western woman reading Crusader Gold by David Gibbons. This afternoon I saw a Chinese woman carrying a yellow paperback called Nudge. I had to take a bit of a detour to see the title, and I didn't catch the name of the author through her fingers. There are two books called Nudge listed on Amazon. One is by Leonard Sweet and the other is by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. Both of them have yellow covers. I saw just three Chinese books this week, one Hong Kong guidebook and one big biology textbook.
What are people reading in your town this week?
Hehe, have to admit I always enjoy these book spotting posts! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRae
Haven't spotted as many books here in norther California as you have in HK, but I did see someone with the same book I was reading. Cutting For Stone.
ReplyDeletep.s. I used to live on McDonald Road. Your picture made we want to be there again.
It's getting harder to tell with more e-readers popping up. I feel that my reading is more anonymous. Pretty cool to see what they are reading elsewhere...
ReplyDeleteI spent the weekend in Shenzhen, China. At an Italian cafe, an American man was reading a Stieg Larsen novel in Mandarin( I recognised the author's photo on the back!)He was looking up words (characters?) using an i-phone app and sometimes writing them down and checking with the waiter. Looked like hard work!
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI saw a young boy with Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. When I mentioned it to one of my tutees, she said that most of the grade school boys she knows are reading the series.
Thanks Rae! I always enjoy spying on people's reads.
ReplyDeleteAre you enjoying Cutting for Stone, Clee? It's one of the many books on my to-read list. Hope you make it back to HK some time.
KJ, It's true that it is more difficult to tell what people have on their e-readers. However, I've noticed that people with iPads (which are incredibly popular here already) are far more likely to be playing games or checking email than reading.
Wow Joyce, that sounds like some serious dedication! I would imagine this made it a lot more difficult for that man to appreciate the momentum of the story.
Enbrethiliel, my students back in the states really liked that book too. Another favorite was The Mysterious Benedict Society, which is a fabulous middle grade book.