Reading envy

When: Thursday 7/15/10, 6:45 PM
Where: MBTA 554 bus, inbound to Boston
Who: Female, late 20s
What: This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

Yet another book I'd like to read, being read by a repeat observee of this blog.

Blast from the academic past

When: Sunday 5/16/10, 12:30 PM
Where: MBTA Red Line, going toward Ashmont , between Harvard and Park St.
Who: Male, early 30s
What: The Bisexual Option by Fred Klein

I wrote a paper on this book in college! I went looking for a "primary source" on bisexuality and this was really all I could find in my college library. It was first published in 1978, and you can tell.

The Black Book on the Red Line

When: Saturday 4/3/10, 1:30 PM
Where: MBTA Red Line, going toward Braintree, between Harvard and Park St.
Who: Male, 60s
What: The Black Book by M.A. Harris

WorldCat's synopsis: "Copiously illustrated scrap-book on folk culture of black people from early days of slavery through the present." Interesting.

Repeat sighting

When: Wednesday 3/10/10, 5:00 PM
Where: MBTA 554 bus, inbound to Waverley Square
Who: Female, early 30s
What: The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America by Don Lattin

A repeat reader! (The same one who was reading Monsieur Pain.) This particular reader always has a new book, so she either reads very fast, gives up on books before they're over, or is reading a large number of books at once.

Subtitles galore!

I have some serious catching up to do. GO!

When: Tuesday 3/9/10, 5:30 PM
Where: MBTA 73 bus, inbound to Harvard Square
Who: Female, 60s
What: Why we love dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows: An introduction to carnism: The belief system that enables us to eat some animals and not others by Melanie Joy

An interesting title, for sure. The Boston Vegetarian Society has an ad along similar lines that I've been seeing lately in the T.

That's "Mr. Bread," not "Mr. Pain"

When: Monday 3/8/10, 5:00 PM
Where: MBTA 554 bus, inbound to Waverley Square
Who: Female, early 30s
What: Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolaño

Long gap in between the dates of the previous entry and this one...trying to catch up!

Waiting for drugs....

When: Thursday, 12/17/09, around 6:00 PM
Where: Pharmacy, the CVS on Church St. in Cambridge
Who: Male, 50s
What: Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett's third appearance on this blog. Popular man.

Catching up

While I may not have been posting, I have been keeping track of what other people have been reading. Stay tuned in the next week for the last month and a half's sightings.

First, this one.

When: Wednesday, 11/25/09, 3:00 PM
Where: MBTA Red Line, going towards Ashmont, between Davis and Harvard
Who: Female, 20s
What: Betrayed by David Givens

The atheist and the church

When: Wednesday 11/18/09, about 10:30 PM
Where: Church St. & Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge
Who: Male, late 20s
What: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins

Amusing to see someone standing outside a church (though, granted, a Unitarian church) reading a book by one of the most diehard and famous atheists out there. For maximum effect, it should have been The God Delusion.

Nice timing

When: Sunday 8/23/09, time not recorded
Where: MBTA Silver Line, between Logan Airport and South Station
Who: Female, 30s, reading to female, 9 or 10
What: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

After dropping my mom off at the airport, saw someone reading (to her daughter, I assumed) a book my mom has used with her fifth grade students.

Enchiladas & crime

When: Monday 8/3/09, 8:00 PM
Where: Border Cafe in Cambridge, downstairs
Who: Male, late 60s
What: Murder in Vegas: New Crime Tales of Gambling and Desperation, ed. Michael Connelly

I may have noticed this particularly because I just got back from said city. My favorite story titles in this collection: "Rolling the Bones" and "Death of a Whale in the Church of Elvis."

Shakespeare - whoever he was

When: Friday 7/31/09, sometime in the early afternoon
Where: MBTA Red Line, going towards Braintree, between Harvard and Park St.
Who: Male, 40s
What: Shakespeare: The World As Stage by Bill Bryson

From what I can tell, this is a biography of Shakespeare, about how difficult writing a biography of Shakespeare is. I've never read anything by Bill Bryson, though I see his books everywhere.

Last of the West Coast sightings

When: Thursday 7/30/09, 10:00 AM
Where: Long Beach (CA) airport
Who: Male, 40s
What: Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear

I was intrigued by the title, but not so much by the WorldCat summary:

"A retrovirus is discovered which provokes miscarriages in women, followed by a second pregnancy without sexual intercourse. As scientists race to unlock its mysteries, fears grow it may herald the end of the human race as we know it."

A book set in Boston, after a flight from Boston

When: Friday 7/24/09, around noon
Where: Long Beach (CA) airport, baggage claim
Who: Female, early 60s
What: The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner

Not even I read while waiting for my bags. It must be a good one.

Their sons had video games instead

When: Friday 7/3/09, 4:00 PM
Where: O'Hare Airport, Chicago, Terminal C
Who: Female, 30s
What: Theory of Relativity by Jacquelyn Mitchard

This was one half of a couple, both reading library books, but I didn't write down the husband's at the time. It was some kind of spy novel - a stereotypical sort of "his and hers" kind of pairing.

Pre- Da Vinci Code

When: Friday 5/8/09, 8:30 AM
Where: MBTA Red Line, going toward Braintree, between Harvard and South Station
Who: Female, 20s
What: Deception Point by Dan Brown

Someone catching up on her Dan Brown canon?

Literary nonfiction!

When: Wednesday 5/6/09, 6:45 PM
Where: MBTA Green Line (B Line), outbound, between Park St. and Kenmore
Who: Male, 20s
What: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

I paused over what category to put this book in. It's literary nonfiction, a genre I increasingly love. Nonfiction seems good to me; "memoir" is a little specific, I think.

Beach reading, Cambridge-style

When: Saturday 4/25/09, around 4:30
Where: near the John W. Weeks footbridge, Cambridge side of the river (see above)
Who: Male, early 20s
What: A History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill

The weather was so nice this weekend, and everyone was on the damp, patchy banks of the Charles, some of them doing semester-end reading (I'm guessing).

In translation

When: Tuesday 4/21/09, 8:00 AM
Where: MBTA Green Line (D Line), between Park St. and Hynes Convention Center
Who: Male, 60s
What: The Lady in Blue by Javier Sierra

A little research reveals that Sierra is a mostly nonfiction writer, though this book is a novel. It also appears to be one of only a couple of his books that have been translated from Spanish to English.

Double feature Friday, part one

When: Friday 4/17/09, 4:45 PM
Where: Appian Way, outside the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge
Who: male, early 20s
What: Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960 by Joanne Meyerowitz

All I saw of the title was "Not June Cleaver," which was enough to remember it. This was another person reading while walking - though I assume this one was for class and not for pleasure.