At United Nations Plaza
When he's not reading the Bible, he likes reading about railroading. When he was a kid he lived near the Southern Pacific line, he said, and since then he's always loved trains, both real ones and models.
Winter, 2014, Saturday afternoon - Reading India Blake
On Fillmore Street, reading Captured, poems by India Blake.
I saw her first from the bus on my way to a friends house and, then hours later, she was still there. I wasn't able to ask her about her favorite books, or what she thought about this one though, for a very simple reason.
She is a scultpure, by the artist Seward Johnson and was part of the Fillmore Sculpture Project.
February 24, 2014, Monday night -- Reading Christopher Isherwood
At the Revolution Cafe during an intermission of Classical Revolution (great classical music that happens every Monday night)
Reading Goodbye to Berlin, by Christopher Isherwood, which she had just picked up at nearby Dogeared Books on Valencia Street. She was saying that she likes that it's open late, which reminded her of another bookstore, in Seattle, which is also open late, called Twice Told Tales, that has lots of cats that can wander all over the store overhead on interconnected bookshelves.
Her favorite book of all time is The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson, which she loves for the language. When she was 13, her first favorite book was Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë.
She said she reads all the time.
She said she reads all the time.
February 23, 2014, Sunday afternoon -- Reading Dr. Claudia Welch
On Van Ness Street, waiting for the bus
On the walk on which I took this picture I passed the new Sightglass coffee shop at 20th and Alabama (no readers), the Streat Food Park at 13th and Bryant (no readers). When I got to where Van Ness begins, the newspaper vendor was reading a book (!!), but he said no to a photo. From the All Star Cafe, to where Van Ness runs into the Bay, this reader was the only one I found.
February 18, 2014, Tuesday evening -- Reading Sallie Walker, David Adler, and Michael Bedard
On Market Street
In celebration of Black History Month, reading Bessie Coleman, Daring to Fly, by Sallie Walker, illustrated by Janice Lee Porter, about a black woman stunt pilot (she could walk on the wing and parachute, "she could do almost any trick in an airplane, no matter how daring"), who was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license.
She's also reading A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman, by David Adler, illustrated by Samuel Byrd; and Sitting Ducks, by Michael Bedard, about alligators who operate a duck factory. Sitting Ducks is her favorite book. She's read it 109 times with her mother and, even though she's only in first grade, can sound out and read a lot of the words herself.
She's also reading A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman, by David Adler, illustrated by Samuel Byrd; and Sitting Ducks, by Michael Bedard, about alligators who operate a duck factory. Sitting Ducks is her favorite book. She's read it 109 times with her mother and, even though she's only in first grade, can sound out and read a lot of the words herself.
February 16, 2014, Sunday morning -- Reading Elmore Leonard
At The Bug hostel/resort near Yosemite
Reading Raylan, a crime novel by Elmore Leonard, named for the main character, Raylan Givens, a Deputy U.S. Marshall.
The reader is actually a friend of mine, who was stealing a bit of reading time between a day of snow shoeing and the drive back to San Francisco. I tried to find someone who I didn't know who was reading in the lodge, but readers (of books) were scarce.
February 8, 2014, Saturday afternoon -- Reading Robert Neuwirth
Working the cash register at Mission Minis, a cupcake shop on 22nd Street
Reading Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, by Robert Neuwirth for an anthropology class at SF State. This is his last semester before he finishes his Bachelor's degree.
His favorite book is Night Over Day Over Night, by Paul Watkins, which is set in 1944 and told from the perspective of a German teenager fighting for Hitler's army. The book is his favorite because of the way the narrator is portrayed. The conditions are tough, but the character doesn't gripe. "Have you ever seen the movie Drive?" he asked me. I hadn't, but he explained that the narrator reminds him of the Ryan Gosling character in that movie, who plays a getaway driver and has a similar demeanor when dealing with adversity.
I had been doing my grocery shopping in the rain when I spotted this reader. I'm still celebrating the pause in our drought by posting in watercolor using Waterlogue.
February 7, 2014, Friday evening -- Reading Italo Calvino
On a rainy Friday night at Peet's Barbeque in the Mission District
Reading The Path to the Spiders' Nests, by Italo Calvino. His favorite book is The Baron in the Trees, also by Italo Calvino.
February 3, 2014, Monday evening -- Reading Colin Meloy
On Monday evening my sister and I went to the Booksmith in the Haight to see someone who went to our elementary school (he was a year ahead of us and we didn't really know him, but even back then we knew he was cool...)
Colin Meloy and his wife, illustrator Carson Ellis, are co-collaborators on a best-selling children's series, Wildwood, that takes place in a mythicalized park in Portland, Oregon.
I photographed one of their fans reading because her dress looked so great with the book cover, and because she was wearing a necklace with a tiny globe on it.
She heard about the books because she is a Decembrists fan and Colin Meloy is their lead singer and song writer. Carson Ellis designs their album covers (check out the beautiful illustrations on her website). While listening to Colin read an excerpt from the book, the long vowels like the eee's and the oh's and the ah's had the same resonance as when he sings.
January 31, 2014, Friday afternoon -- Reading Stephen Mooser
Not shopping for oranges
Reading Into the Unknown: Nine Astounding Stories, by Stephen Mooser. The stories are about mysterious things that have happened and haven't been explained, like people disappearing into thin air. He also likes reading the series Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney.
January 28, 2014, Tuesday evening -- Reading author bios and back-of-book blurbs
At James Warner's reading series InsideStorytime at Movida in the Mission District,
Jazz improvist, author, actor, actualizer, and producer, judy b., not just reading, but singing author bios and back-of-book blurbs.
style and James, the host, asked for a volunteer from the audience.
judy b. raised her hand and volunteered. She said she's always ready to sing. She sounded great. She later told me that her voice was even warmed up because she'd been singing on her bike ride over. She sang everyone else's bios, too, and, as in the picture, the back-of-book blurb of A Guide to Bars and Nightlife in the Sacred City, by the author, Benjamin Wachs.
Afterwards, there were requests that her intro-singing become a regular thing.
She doesn't have a favorite book of all time, but the best thing she's read recently was Darshan, by Amrit Chima, who was also reading that night.
January, 25, 2014, Saturday afternoon -- Reading Ann Patchett
At Ocean Beach, my sister, waiting while I interviewed someone else for my blog
When I finished my interview I came back and snuck up on her. She was sitting on her flip flops in the sand, watching some kids built a moat and reading State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett.
Later, I called her on the phone to moan about what I should do about the jellyfish sting I got later that afternoon and also to admit that I don't actually know her favorite book of all time - key information I like to put on my blog and also something one should know about one's sister.
She gave me good advice about what to do about the jelly fish sting and said that she doesn't have a favorite book of all time. Her favorite book of recent times is Canada, by Richard Ford. But, she said, State of Wonder is just as enthralling.
I remembered her telling me about Canada while she was reading it. There was a part where kids were trying to cook without their parents' help and took steaks from the freezer and put them straight into the frying pan, so that they burned on the outside and frozen in the middle.
January 25, 2014, Saturday afternoon -- Reading Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
At Ocean Beach
Reading I Am That, based on talks with an Indian sage named Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. This is his favorite book and he's read it six or seven times. He said that it has helped him understand that everyone has a different reality, that everyone is interconnected, and that there is no need to fixate on the narratives of our own lives.
He said that he no longer reads fiction. Instead, he likes spiritual books, and documentaries, even on Netflix.
January 21, 2014, Tuesday afternoon -- Reading John Scalzi
On the bus on the way home from work
January 16, 2014, Thursday evening -- Reading Henry Miller
At a taqueria on Mission Street
Reading Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller, which a friend gave her as a gift. This is the second time in less than a month that I've photographed someone reading this book.
Her favorite book of all time used to be Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, which her parents gave her as a gift when she was ten, but now it's The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx. Other contenders for favorite book were Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey and The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy.
January 15, 2014, Wednesday afternoon -- Reading Jessica Anthony
At the Civic Center Farmer's Market
Reading The Convalescent, by Jennifer Anthony. He found it at the library, liked the cover art, read the first paragraph, and was hooked. It was published by McSweeny's and is about a Hungarian dwarf living in Virgina, who is a butcher and social outcast.
His favorite author is Ayn Rand, followed by P.G. Wodehouse and Chuck Palahniuk.
Reading The Convalescent, by Jennifer Anthony. He found it at the library, liked the cover art, read the first paragraph, and was hooked. It was published by McSweeny's and is about a Hungarian dwarf living in Virgina, who is a butcher and social outcast.His favorite author is Ayn Rand, followed by P.G. Wodehouse and Chuck Palahniuk.
January 13, 2014, Monday afternoon -- Reading F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dzogchen Ponlop, and St. Rajshekhar (spelling?)
 |
| Diana the Hunter overlooking the Pacific, where Geary begins (or ends?). |
Urban hikes are one of my favorite things and I've always wanted to walk the length of Geary, which runs all the way from the cliffs overlooking the ocean to the heart of downtown where it dead ends just past Union Square.
The first reader I spotted was at an Irish bakery near 20th Avenue. She was working the cash register and looking at an electronic device in a way that suggested book, so I went into ask. "Is that a book you're reading?"
She was reading Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. She's read all of Fitzgerald's other work. Her favorite book of all time is Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, which she read in the 8th grade. It was the first of the classics that made her realize there was more to reading than Harry Potter.
At the Toyota Service Center at Arguello I spotted an elderly woman reading in the waiting room. She declined to let me photograph her, but I was instantly cheered by looking through the windows at the pet store next door. Did you know you can buy 49ers cheerleading uniforms for your dogs?
Geary led past carpet stores and furniture stores, the Institute on Aging, reached its highest point near the new Target store (gasp - what is San Francisco coming to), and then headed down into the Western Addition, where I admired a mosaic and happened upon a lovely couple enjoying the sunshine on a park bench.
He was reading Rebel Buddha: A Guide to a Revolution of Mind, by Dzogchen Ponlop and she was reading a Gujarati book about the teachings of Lord Mahavir, which comes from the tradition of Jainism. His favorite books are anything by the British author, Jeffrey Archer. When I asked him to mention one, he said Kane and Abel, which made me smile, not because I'm familiar with the book, but because suddenly there were three religions on the table: his wife's Jain book, his Buddhist book, and now this book which surely had something to do with Christianity. "This reminds me of Life of Pi!" I said, and described about how 16-year-old Pi practiced Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity and didn't see a conflict. "Is this the same for you?" I boldly asked and he smiled and nodded.
I wish I'd asked her what her favorite book was, but I got distracted.
In Japan Town I stopped myself from rapping on the glass of a parked car to talk to a mysterious looking man in dark glasses reading a book with Chinese print. Near Van Ness Avenue, before heading into the Tenderloin, I jaywalked to talk to a woman who was also reading a book with Chinese print, but her bus came before I could finish my question.
January 13, 2014, Monday afternoon -- Reading James Baldwin
At a coffee shop in the Sunset District (I was on my way to Geary Street and saw him reading from Muni)
Reading Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin. He'd been reading short stories by Baldwin, which impelled him to read this.
His favorite author is Hemingway, for the style.
January 9, 2014, Thursday afternoon -- Reading Juliette Benzoni
At a cafe near Ocean Beach, not far from where the kite surfers were ripping across the waves,
I spotted this reader, reading the French author, Juliette Benzoni. In French, the book is titled Dans le Lit des Reines. In English that translates into In the Bed of Queens. In Russian, the title the reader had in his hands, it's ночные тайны королев, which directly translates as (I think) The Mysterious Nights of Queens.
I'd studied Russian in college and lived near St. Petersburg for a year and a half, so it was a great excuse to practice speaking Russian, something I don't have a chance to do very often. So, even though the Russians in San Francisco usually insist on speaking English, I tried to ask my questions entirely in Russian.
So, instead of "What's your favorite book in the whole world?" I asked "Chto vasha lyoobimaya kniga v fso mirye?" and he didn't answer. So, I said it again, and again and he said, in English, "I understand!" Of course, everyone has to have a minute to think about a question this important.
He answered that he likes a lot of books and then made a decision. His favorite book in the whole world, coincidentally, is the same as mine -- Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, about Moscow in the 1930s, where pigs can fly.
Afterwards, I went for a walk on the beach - my reason for going to the neighborhood in the first place - and took pictures of the kite surfers and this picture of the sunset.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
