People Reading

What I'm reading

What I'm reading

From January 2014 to most recent: lots of New Yorker fiction that I caught up on – I especially loved The Christmas Miracle, by Rebecca Curtis; Life of Pi, by Yann Martel; The Help, by Kathryn Stockett; The Heart of a Dog, by Mikhail Bulgakov; Haruki Murakami's 1Q84; Bel Canto and The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett; the choreographer Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit (intermittently); The Remains of the Day and The Unconsoled, by Kazuo Ishiguro; State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett; The Mystic Masseur, by the British/Trinidadian author, V.S. Naipaul; Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro; Sula, by Toni Morrison; two Swedish crime novels I read (in English) while in Sweden: Nephilim, by Åsa Schwarz & Killer's Art, by Mari Jungstedt; The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson; Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell, which my sister and friend, Colleen, recommended; Run, by Ann Patchett; When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World History, by Timothy C. Hall; The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell (only half because the ebook I was reading expired- but it was a re-read); The Circle, by Dave Eggers; Our Hotel In Bali: How two young Americans made a dream come true by opening one of the first Balinese tourist hotels on Kuta Beach in the 1930s, by Louise Koke (which I got from the Cannes free library on the beach, Pages à la plage); Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, by Madhur Jaffrey (from cover to cover - I was craving a kitchen, while traveling); Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami; The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt; The Corsican Caper, by Peter Mayle (on audio book); Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (on audio book); The Secret History, by Donna Tartt. (Starting a new year, 2015) Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella; Shaking out the Dead, by K.M. Cholewa; The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery; English teaching text books and New Yorker fiction; Divergent and Insurgent, by Veronica Roth; The Wolf Gift, by Anne Rice; and My Struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgård.

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September 22, 2016, Thursday evening -- Reading Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

Even after 10 years of photographing readers, I continue to be impressed by people coordinated enough to read while walking.

On Mission Street

He is reading Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.. He's reading it because he gives talks on leadership.

His favorite book is The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, because it's about the journey. I asked him if life's journey is a part of his talks and he said yes. He told me that part of his own personal journey has been standing still when faced with adversity. Sometimes it's about just not taking a step backwards.

September 11, 2016, Sunday afternoon -- Reading Robert Bly

At a taqueria in the Mission District

He is reading Iron John: A book about Men, by Robert Bly. His girlfriend is a therapist and counselor and he is interested in gender identity. The book uses mythology to talk about toxic masculinity in our society, how boys today lack of role models, and how our society has lost traditions to teach boys how to be men.

His current favorite writer is Anne Carson, an award winning Canadian translator, poet, and essayist, who has a background in the classics.

September 6, 2016, Tuesday afternoon -- Reading Bruce Tremper

At China Beach on a day warm enough to go swimming

He is reading Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, by Bruce Tremper. He reads a lot of books about snow safety.

One of his favorite books is The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, about what the soldiers carried with them in Vietnam. He said he usually does not like reading books with lists, but this book wasn't just a book of lists. It talked about the soldiers' whole lives.

Happy Labor Day! - no post today

August 24, 2016, Wednesday afternoon -- Reading Maggie Nelson

In the Mission District on a sunny afternoon, until Karl the fog creeps over the hill....

She is on vacation here, from Austria, and is reading The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson, in English -- not her native language. Is it difficult? I asked and she said yes, but still called it pleasure reading.

She's taking a break from reading sociology texts in German for a Ph.D. Her dissertation is about inequality in education in Europe.

While on vacation she first she tried reading Middlesex, but a friend recommended this -- an award-winning memoir of essays about being queer, non-binary, and starting a family -- and now she's almost finished and is ready to declare it her favorite book.

August 21, 2016, Sunday afternoon -- Reading Kevin Fedarko

On a sunny afternoon in Union Square

He is reading The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, by Kevin Fedarko. This is his second time reading it. He's a whitewater kayaker and has been down the Colorado River before....but not as fast.

Since it was his second time reading it, I asked him if it was his favorite book and he said no. His favorite books change all the time. Something good he's read recently was The Passenger, a novel by Lisa Lutz, about a woman on the run who needs to constantly change her identity.

May 26, 2016, Thursday Morning -- Reading Renise Charles

I usually post pictures of other people reading, and I usually post pictures of people reading books (because I respect the commitment of taking a huge chunk of time to appreciate another person's writing), but I'm breaking both rules with this picture below. This is me reading a 5-minute story that I found at Cafe Zoetrope in San Francisco.

Cafe Zoetrope installed a story machine that was inspired by the ones in France, on train platforms, where you can print out a story that will take you the length of your wait to read.

This is a 5-minute story by Renise Charles and, after false starting once because one of my seat partners arrived, it took me exactly 5 minutes to read. Sometimes you just need a little something before take off before delving into the real entertainment (for me this flight it was the audio version of Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett.)

Thanks, Heather Bourbeau, for the heads up about the story machine!

August 5, 2016, Friday afternoon -- Reading D. H. Lawrence

At a sandwich shop in the Mission District

She is reading Women in Love, by D. H. Lawrence. She saw it at a bookstore, picked it up, started reading, and bought it. She's never read D. H. Lawrence before.

Her favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas.

July 26, 2016, Tuesday evening -- Reading Alfie Kulzick

In the Mission District, at Amnesia, a bar that used to be called Chatterbox

She is reading Chatterbox: Biography of a Bar, San Francisco 1986-1990, by Alfie Kulzick. The bartender gave it to her to read. It's full of outrageous band photos with even more outrageous band names. I don't remember them. You'll have to go and check the book out yourself if you want to know.

These days she's been reading short stories, most recently Nine Stories, by J.D. Salinger.

The picture of the bear, woman, and fish behind her is by Michael Garlington. The bartender gave me a card and I searched for it online, and discovered that Michael Garlington, and his team, was responsible for the Totem of Confessions, my favorite piece of artwork that I saw at Burning Man in 2015.

No reader this week

Sometimes I ask people if I can photograph them reading and they say no. On Thursday night it happened at a restaurant in West Portal, where a woman eating soup and wearing sunglasses was reading a library book in the rays of the setting sun.

Sometimes I see a book, but there is no one reading it. This morning it was a paperback Sci Fi novel face down, with its pages spread in lieu of a bookmark, on the blanket of a homeless person sleeping next to Trader Joe's, but I didn't have time to linger, and hope they started reading again when they woke up.

Sometimes I wait until Friday or Saturday to start looking for readers to photograph and, in my normal day-to-day life, there is no one with a book. This afternoon I saw a man next to the Science parklet on Valencia Street bent over his cell phone, but I didn't know if it was a book, or something else that he was engaged with.

When I started this blog almost 10 years ago people didn't read books on cell phones. They had cell phones, but they weren't filled with enough distractions, or books, to make a physical book an unnecessary thing to carry.

What I'm trying to say is that it has gotten harder to wait until the last minute to come up with a blog post.

Sometime between 1888 and 1889, Reading author unknown

While I was in New York at the end of May, I visited the Met and saw this portrait of a reader, painted by the gentleman in the straw hat. The reader, according to the plaque on the wall, is Marie Ginoux, the proprietress of the Café du Gare in Arles.

The plaque doesn't tell the title of her book, but from the expression on her face, my guess is that it caused her to think about something in her own life. What I like best about reading is that it's a conversation between the reader and writer (I'm not sure who said that first). It looks like, in the moment van Gogh chose to capture, Marie Ginoux is having her say.

July 9, 2016, Saturday afternoon -- Reading James Patterson and Mark Sullivan

In downtown, Markleeville, California

She is reading The Games (Private), a novel by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan, while watching the Death Ride -- a 100+ mile bicycle ride up to 5 mountain passes. Her husband is participating in the race, and she's enjoying a day in the sun with her book. She's already read a few books on her vacation so far, and exchanges them in her condo book exchange.

James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell are her favorite authors. She's a chef and does not read about food on vacation.

July 3, 2016, Sunday afternoon -- Reading John Leppelman

In the Mission District

He is reading Blood on the Risers: An Airborne Soldier's Thirty-five Months in Vietnam, by John Leppelman. He said that it's a good book and everything that he's read so far is true, and he knows this because he was a medic in Vietnam. Usually, he says, 1/3 of a book is true, 1/3 of a book is false, and 1/3 is not important. A professor at Marquette University told him this and he's found it to be accurate.

Television, he said, is less true. He prefers radio to TV. He grew up in the Virgin Islands listening to The BBC and CBC (British Broadcasting and Canadian Broadcasting) and will never watch TV because of the propaganda.

He enjoys reading about science, philosophy, mysticism, the occult, and anything but European literature.

June 22, 2016, Wednesday evening -- Reading Benjamin Alire Sáenz

In the Mission District, walking to the BART station

He is reading Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. It's a young adult novel. He said he picked it up because he was looking for a distraction and young adult novels are the best for that. It won the Stonewall Book Award in 2013.

June 19, 2016, Sunday afternoon -- Reading Emmanuel Carrère and Siobhan Dowd

In Dolores Park on a warm and sunny day

They are visiting from France and brought their library books with them.
The reader on the left is reading Le Royaume, by Emmanuel Carrère, her favorite author. The book is about the early days of Christianity.
The reader on the right is reading Sans Un Cri, by the British author, Siobhan Dowd. It's a young adult novel about an Irish teenager.

June 10, 2016, Friday afternoon -- Reading Cormac McCarthy

In the Mission District, waiting for his bus

He is reading All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy. He picked it up because he liked the title.
Some of his favorite authors are Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck.

May 30, 2016, Monday afternoon -- Reading Siddhartha Mukherjee

In Times Square, New York City

(I was there for a friend's wedding.)

She is reading The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. She's reading it because she is interested in biology and the author teaches at Columbia where she went to college.

Her favorite author is Jon Krakauer, and her favorite book of his is Into Thin Air.

May 22, 2016, Sunday afternoon -- Reading Robert T. Kiyosaki

On the BART platform

He is reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki. It was recommended by his uncle.
Right now he's studying pharmacy - he wants to make enough money so he doesn't have to think about money. He is also working as a model. His favorite book is American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis.

May 11, 2016, Wednesday evening -- Reading Christopher Cook

In Dolores Park

He is reading Diet for a Dead Planet, by the San Francisco author, Christopher Cook.
The book is good, he said, but we're doomed. His favorite book is Dune, by Frank Herbert. He's read it a few times.

May 5, 2016, Thursday morning -- Reading Philip Yenawine

In the Mission District

He is reading How to Look at Modern Art, by Philip Yenawine. He said he's giving it the first hundred pages. So far it's good. He found it on the street and will probably leave it on BART.

One of his favorite authors is Douglas Adams, who he discovered when he was about 12, but that's not what got him into reading in the first place. He really liked the Choose Your Own Adventure books when he was younger.

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I started this blog in 2006 as an exploration of literary San Francisco and daily affirmation that people still read. I was working on a novel and needed encouragement.

After interviewing over 1,200 readers, I've discovered the beauty and rarity of a given book being read at a given time, instead of, say, packed away in a box somewhere. I've also discovered that I've not only been chronicling the popularity of books, but also the diversity of individuals. What goes on inside our minds is evidenced by and influenced by what we are reading, have read, and the inner dialogs we have with authors.

In 2007, I took a Greyhound bus trip to all the lower-48 states and took photos of readers in each of them: DogEaredUSA. Following that, about a year later, I spent 48-hours in Oahu photographing readers. I found about 46: Readers in Oahu.

The pictures to your left are taken in San Francisco, unless I say otherwise.

I get rejected about 20% of the time and I respect the privacy of people who do not want to be on this site.

I invite you to search the blog (see upper left corner) for your favorite books so you can see who else likes to read what you do. It always makes me happy when I interview completely different looking people who have the same favorite books.

Please let me know if I've made a mistake or if you have something to add. You can also email me directly at sonya.worthy@gmail.com.