This week, I saw a tall Western man on the MTR reading a small paperback and for about four stops I tried to figure out what the title was without staring. I was rewarded for my persistence when he exited the train and I saw that the title was Shannon's Way. The next day, I saw a Chinese woman with a stack of three books on her lap. The bottom two had Chinese titles, but the top one was Many Lives, Many Masters. I stopped by the Pacific Coffee Company in IFC on my way to pick up some friends at the airport express. I saw a young couple with a book on the table called Modernes Russisch, which I took to be a Russian book for German speakers. Another young man was reading a book that had a black cover with a big red scorpion on it. Does anyone know what book it was? This weekend I took a few friends to the Temple Street night market, and on the way home I saw a young Chinese woman reading Tuesdays with Morrie on the MTR. I saw an additional four Chinese books in the hands of MTR readers this week.
What are people reading in your town?
Note: For a little something extra, my words and photos recently appeared on the lovely blog The Art of Staying Up All Night for the Amazing Bookshops Around the World feature.
The only books I see people in my little suburb reading are bodice rippers. Drive into Houston, though, and it's drastically different.
ReplyDeleteI love to read your bookspotting and walking tour posts, and look forward to them (at least I can live vicariously :) Rae
ReplyDeleteSuccess! The scorpion cover is the UK version of "Scorpia Rising"..I played detective :) Rae
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteHooray for Rae! I tried searching, too, but only found a children's novel with a red scorpion but no black background (The Curse of the Red Scorpion) and a collector's edition of a Stephen King novel which was all black but had a small red scorpion (Desperation).
As for me, I've deduced that the fifth-grade boys in a certain school have been assigned Wringer by Jerry Spinelli in English class! =P
Wow, I'm very impressed Rae! That was some quick detective work :).
ReplyDeleteThank you all so much for coming back for bookspotting each week!
Jennifer, I laughed out loud about the bodice rippers.
Enbrethiliel, that's funny that you caught so many 5th graders doing their homework.
I really like this feature, as I like to see what people are reading! Unfortunately, I haven't spotted anyone in my town, reading anything more exciting than the newspaper......
ReplyDeleteI love this feature! Quite a good number of people are reading in the train when I am on my way to work, but it's so hard to get a good peek at the title. Last week I saw this guy reading a huge book that must have been at least 800 pages and I was dying to find out which book it was! He must have thought weird things the way I kept looking in his direction all the time. Never figured out the title though...
ReplyDeleteI find myself constantly looking out for what people are reading, especially on Mondays, as a result of this blog. I like it!
ReplyDeleteToday I saw a woman on the bus reading Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I swear, I cannot go even one week without seeing SOMEONE reading one of those books. And then I saw a man reading Atonement by Ian McEwan.
What a neat idea to go BookSpotting....love it.
ReplyDeleteNEW FOLLOWER and NEW E-MAIL SUBSCRIBER.
I will be having two different giveaways on my blog......one starting tomorrow and one posted right now.
http://silversolara.blogspot.com/2011/06/book-giveawaythe-night-train-by-clyde.html
STOP BY.
Elizabeth
http://silversolara.blogspot.com