Book Encounters with Strangers

Yesterday was a cheery day.

First I talked with my bank teller about her new Kindle. She said she was looking for good books to put on it. I asked what she liked to read, she said, "Romances!" Ah well. That is one genre I am clueless in. Still, she asked what I was reading and I told her it was in the Harry Dresden series, called Dead Beat. She had that glazed look, so I said, well, there is some romance, along with wizards, zombies, vampires and the like! I don't think I sold her on it.

Next encounter was with a coworker. She is trying to expand her reading from just romances. I was telling her about the Jack Reacher novels. She likes the same action/adventure/fantasy movies I do, so I thought she might like to try these. She was interested, but the first one she got was the first in the series, Killing Floors, which is in first person, which is a no go for her. Sigh. I did tell her that they are not all in first person, and I read them at random, not in order, so maybe she will continue.

The third was at the hotel with a guest. Our internet passwords are mostly my favorite author's names. Right now it is Dorothy L. Sayers. Usually people groan, say "Who on earth is that?" or "Who thought up that ridiculous password!" Yesterday though, a woman gasped before I even got the whole name out, said, "You're kidding me! She is my favorite author! In fact, I have one of her books with me right now, I've probably read it 20 times already, but I love it!" :D If it were my hotel, I would have given her a free room.

Arrrrggghhhhhh! Again! The stupid auto-group thing got me. Sorry! This was meant to be in the Green Dragon.

> 2

Never mind, it's an interesting topic for discussion here.

I enjoy seeing what other people are reading on the bus or plane. I've gotten into quite interesting discussions with people about the books one or the other of us is reading, and enjoyed the day when I was on the bus reading Trollope and a young man came by, tapped me on the shoulder and showed me his book - he was reading Trollope, too.

Sadly, the upsurge of people using what the airlines call "portable electronic devices" makes it more difficult to see other people's reading choices, no matter how you crane your neck!

(P.S. I love Dorothy L. Sayers, too. I re-read Gaudy Night at least once a year; it's one of my favorite books ever.)

>1 MrsLee: Our internet passwords are mostly my favorite author's names. Right now it is Dorothy L. Sayers. Usually people groan, say "Who on earth is that?" or "Who thought up that ridiculous password!"

I sometimes tell people that my password is "i'llbeinmybunk" just to see if they'll laugh. If they do, I know I've found a kindred spirit.

>2 MrsLee:

A fortunate mistake, then, to have it here for everyone to participate!

Like lilithcat, I enjoy seeing what other people are reading on public transit, and once or twice have even commented on it or had mine commented on. The most surprising encounter was a few years ago; I was reading Tulipomania (interesting book, but a fairly narrow niche) and as I was walking from the train station to work I saw someone carrying a book with the same color cover. I didn't think much of it until I ended up behind the guy at the coffee shop, and it turned out to be the same book! (I didn't say anything. I'm a total introvert.)

I haven't had a book conversation in transit in a long time. Well, a few weeks ago a guy gave me a thumbs up as I was reading Sturgeon, Starshine (pretty sure it was meant for the book).

Last talk I remember was months ago, I was reading Woody Allen's Complete prose, chortling to myself, and a woman came over to ask WHAT WAS THE BOOK, she found it so irresistible. I love it when people give in to curiosity as freely as children. We ended up talking all the way.

Last time I approached someone reading, it was a girl with a very interesting-looking Penguin cover I just could not place. Had to ask her, it turned out to be some edition of Ken Kesey's Cuckoo book, never read it.

#3> "I enjoy seeing what other people are reading on the bus or plane."

When I lived in San Francisco and had to commute back and forth to work each day, I always wanted to go around and make a list of what the people on my trolley car were reading each day. I thought it would be a fun project. When I see someone reading near me in a public space (transit, restaurant, etc.), I feel an almost compulsive need to know what the book is. My excuse is that I'm a bookseller, but that's really only a pretend reason. Basically, I just want to know.

#4>" I sometimes tell people that my password is "i'llbeinmybunk" just to see if they'll laugh. If they do, I know I've found a kindred spirit."

I often have my dog with me in my bookstore, and, as he's a very friendly fellow, customers often ask me his name. Unfortunately, most of them get a very puzzled expression when I respond, "His name is Yossarian." I live in a very small town. I was eating at an outdoor restaurant table one day when a woman running for a county judgeship came by to introduce herself and say hello. Admiring my canine friend, she asked me his name. Upon hearing it, she said, "Oh, I love Catch 22." At which point I said, "OK, you have my vote, then. Your work is done, here." (I already knew I was voting for her, anyway, but this just confirmed my decision.)

On the other hand, I don't know what "i'llbeinmybunk" refers to, so I guess I'm not as smart as all that, am I? :)

>4 southernbooklady: That password will get you into trouble one day. Or are you a Companion?

>8 TheoClarke: See, now, I love you already!

>7 rocketjk: I don't know what "i'llbeinmybunk" refers to, so I guess I'm not as smart as all that, am I? :)

You just don't watch as much geek television as I do. That's probably a good thing. My other alternate password is a variation on "Don't blink!"

I've watched Firefly two times (it's due for a rewatch soon) but I still didn't catch that (had to google). "Blink" I rewatched just around New Year's, on the other hand, so that was fresh in memory.

>10 anglemark: I totally didn't remember that!

As an attorney, I am always attentive to books that prospective jurors may have with them. They may speak more honestly about them, than their answers to questions during voir dire.

>12 nemoman: Oooo, crafty!

As a hotel manager who has implemented a book sharing program at the hotel, I'm always asking people what they are reading, but I've cut back because I find people getting defensive about it, I'm afraid they think it is rude, whereas I always love to discuss the book I'm reading with others.

One positive instance; a very big trucker had a well-worn paperback, so I asked him what it was and if he liked it. He said he always carried a copy in his truck to read, and he had read it multiple times. It was Nobel House.

> 13

I like it when hotels have books available. It's never the big fancy chains, though, is it? (They're the ones that charge for WiFi, too!) There's a hotel I stay at in NYC that has a smallish, but comfy, reading area in the lobby, with packed bookshelves. The fun part is that they have a rather international clientele, so the books are in quite a variety of languages.

>13 MrsLee: I never intrude on their privacy by asking questions about what I can see. The fact that a person might read a book by Glen Beck is all I need to know, as one example.

>13 MrsLee:
>14 lilithcat:

My husband and I are visiting NYC in April and staying at the Library Hotel - a block from the NY Public Library, bookshelves tucked in everywhere, each guest room has books!

Another great place is The Sylvia Beach Hotel, for book lovers, on the Oregon coast with author themed rooms and a library.

I just moved to Tokyo recently from Texas so I've now changed my commute driving a car to riding on the train. That means I now get to peer over people's shoulders and see what they're reading. So far the Japanese books have been mostly mystery genre which I'm not too familiar with other than the big names. They also tend to read a lot of job-related books and self-help books which I'm not interested in.

But the other day there was a non-Japanese woman who was reading a translation of In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki. I loved that book and loved seeing someone reading a non-mystery. Normally I wouldn't have interrupted her but she was already distracted by the people bumping into her so I chipped in a "That's an excellent book" to which she replied "It is, this is my second time reading it!" So that was really fun for me.

Otherwise my new coworkers don't read so I have no one to discuss books with here at work. And even when I do get asked what authors I like, most of the Japanese people I've talked with haven't been readers and don't even know the names of the most famous authors from their country unless it's within the mystery genre. Alas.

At least I have a few reader friends here. I like to suggest them books and they tend to read them right away.

>12 nemoman: That's interesting, what do you infer from people's reading choices that they otherwise may not have told you?

I often talk to people about their books. I've been lucky to get good responses, especially from people who are happily surprised that someone else likes what they like, especially science fiction.

>18 bernsad: Fiction does not give me as much insight as nonfiction. I essentially am looking for people who are openminded and can be persuaded by the facts adduced during trial. I prefer nonlinear thinkers, because sometimes linear thinkers reach an unjust result simply because they get caught up in the jury instructions. I avoid ideologues because they are uneducable, and will dismiss or overlook facts that do not comply with their world view. For example, any book by Glen Beck would be a disqualifier. Some people do not believe there is any such thing as sex or race discrimination. They may have books by Rush Limbaugh. Others have been programmed politically to believe there is too much litigation and that most of it is frivolous. Someone who reads Ayn Rand would likely lack any empathy for a victim, and not believe a corporation should be accountable for its wrongdoing. I view romance and fantasy fiction as essentially escapist, and therefore draw no conclusions, other than you are on jury duty and fighting boredom. I like jurors who read history or serious literature, but selfhelp books raise a red flag.
These obviously are gross working stereotypes that could be wrong, but in the limited time available you have to go with your gut. Most people will never concede that they could not be fair in a given case. Yet, we all have prejudices that might prevent us from being fair in certain circumstances.

>20 nemoman: Fascinating, thanks for the reply.

>20 nemoman: These obviously are gross working stereotypes that could be wrong, but in the limited time available you have to go with your gut.

I suppose it makes as much sense as making judgments about people based on the clothes they wear or the bumper stickers on their car. I am on some level the kind of girl who wants people to judge her based on the books they see on her bookshelves, but over twenty years as a bookseller has taught me that the books we're holding in our hands are better as starting points for getting to know a person, than as reasons to jump to conclusions about them.

>22 southernbooklady: You are right of course in terms of really getting to know a person. I believe there is a quotation to the effect: Tell me what you read and I will tell you who you are. Tell me what you reread and I will know a lot more about you. Certainly a person could be reading The Fountainhead out of curiosity, and not because she embraces Rand's philosophy.

I've really noticed in the last two or three years how rare it is to see people reading actual books on public transport. Or even newspapers, apart from the free ones (Metro, etc.). Even on aeroplanes they've stopped making you switch off your e-book reader during take-off and landing, so it's not really essential to have a paper book with you on flights any more. Jury service — where I assume they don't let you use mobile phones and the like — must be one of the few situations remaining where you are likely to see significant numbers of people reading something identifiable in public.

I've never been in that situation, but I'd imagine that the only people who bring along books associated with a particular moral or political stance to jury service are those who are either very firm in their commitment to those ideas, or so naïve that they don't realise how others will perceive their reading of such a book. The person reading The fountainhead "out of curiosity" would be most likely to do it in private, surely. I'd imagine that I'd take along something light in tone, relatively long, and as noncommital about me as I could manage: Wodehouse, Trollope, Dickens (...but not Bleak House, obviously!), maybe R.K. Narayan. No crime stories, nothing obviously political.

I do recall someone telling me that each time he was called for jury service he took a communist newspaper with him and kept it stuck in a jacket pocket to ensure that he wasn't selected. Possibly apocryphal, but I can see how it might work...

>24 thorold:

I'd imagine that I'd take along something light in tone, relatively long, and as noncommital about me as I could manage: Wodehouse, Trollope, Dickens (...but not Bleak House, obviously!), maybe R.K. Narayan. No crime stories, nothing obviously political.

You seem to be forgetting that there is a significant fraction of the population who wants to get out of jury duty by any means possible, and I'm quite sure that selecting reading material likely to get them non-selected could be a tactic.

>25 lorax:
No, I'm aware that there are people who don't want to do it (hence the anecdote about the communist paper), I was speculating about what I'd do personally. But I've never been faced with the situation, so I genuinely don't know how I'd respond. One of the quirks of expat life is that you're usually left out when that sort of civic duty comes around.

Ah, okay, I was misinterpreting your "This is what I would do" to have a subtext of "And thus it bewilders me why anyone would do otherwise", and mistook the communist paper anecdote as what you perceived to be an extreme outlier.

BTW: going back to the original question, I should think the book that opened up the most interesting conversations with strangers for me was Thomas Cook's Continental Timetable. Back in the day, it was practically infallible for breaking the ice between Interrailers, whether you were in a hostel, a railway compartment, or sitting on the steps of a major railway station. Sadly, that particular ploy wouldn't be much use in the mobile phone age...

Failing that, I've always found that P.G. Wodehouse is a pretty good conversation-starter.

>26 thorold:

In the UK there is no equivalent to the US voir dire. You go along and it is random as to whether you are selected for a particular trial or not.

# 24> "I've really noticed in the last two or three years how rare it is to see people reading actual books on public transport."

I've actually been surprised by the opposite. As the owner of a used bookstore, I have an interest in noticing these trends, of course, but I have been surprised by how well paper books seem to be holding up among travelers. I would have thought by now that no more than, say, one in five readers would be toting books around, but I always take a sharp look, often when on a plane I'll walk up and down the length of the plane (well, the length of the economy cabin, anyway) and it seems to me the ratio is still about 50-50. That's my observation, anyway. Of course, on public transportation in a place like San Francisco, which is the last city I lived in, there's bound to be a much higher percentage of technology adopters. It all depends on where you are, I think.

>3 lilithcat:
I wondered if there was an ereader cover that could display the book you're reading, and found out about the Kindle Flare http://gizmodo.com/the-onion-explains-how-the-new-kindle-brags-about-your-161278...