A 20-second interview at Naan 'n' Curry between North Beach and the Financial District (I was having lunch with a friend....not the concerned-looking woman in the background)
Reading Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov. He's enjoying it. (Green shirt, beard, shaved head.) It was recommended by a friend of a friend who lives in the East Bay, who had also recommended two other books he enjoyed -- The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel and The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger.
Reading Cat and Mouse, by Harold Coyle, one of his favorite authors.
June 24, Wednesday afternoon -- Reading Vladimir Nabokov and Harold Coyle
June 21, Sunday afternoon -- Reading Margaret Mascarenhas
At Baker Beach
Reading The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos, by Margaret Mascarenhas, about a teenage girl who disappears into the Venezuelan jungle.
If she were to write her own book, it'd be about the life of her grandmother. When she was a child her grandmother would, in the mornings, call her over to lie in bed together and she'd tell her stories about the depression. Her grandmother was a poor child who went to a rich school where the other girls wore fur coats and had shiny patent leather shoes. Her grandmother wore lace up boots. When her grandmother had a birthday, her mother invited over all the girls in the class and bought three kinds of ice cream. They waited in the driveway for all the girls to arrive, but they didn't. There was another party going on that day. Childhood is hard. Her grandmother, though, died a happy woman.
June 20, Saturday morning -- Reading Neil Strauss
Breakfasting at Boogaloos
Reading Emergency, by Neil Strauss, which he discovered by reading the blog of Tim Ferris, who is the author of The Four Hour Work Week.
Emergency is about what to do when the world falls apart. Here's a review from the LA Times.
His favorite book -- the dictionary. Favorite entry -- omphaloskepsis; that is, navel gazing or contemplation of one's navel as an aid to meditation.
(you can click on the pictures to enlarge them)June 19, Friday morning -- Reading California Appelate Reports
In the Financial District
I pass this man some mornings on my way to work and this is the first time I've seen him reading.
Reading California Appelate Reports 2d Series #158. It's not lively reading. He found it on the street. An author he likes to read – Carlos Castañeda, who writes, he explained, about paths to knowledge through natural hallucinogens and also about shape shifting.
Here's a link to the Google Book Search preview of The Teachings of Don Juan, by Carlos Castañeda.
If he were to write his own book it’d be for young people, encouraging them to avoid the stupid things he has done. When he first came to San Francisco he had all his teeth and wasn't HIV positive. He's trying to get back on track – saving money, getting things in line, going back to Florida where he has family. “If I go back,” he said, “my sister won’t even let me leave the county.” His sister loves him.
June 16, Tuesday evening -- Reading Jon Erickson
In his down time at work, at a Mission Street hair salon
Reading Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, by Jon Erickson ...for the fun of it. He has no devious plans to put into action.
A favorite author -- Ruby Pierre. I may have gotten the name wrong because I can't find any authors online by that name.
June 15, Monday evening -- Reading Roy Jenkins
On the BART train
Reading Churchill, by Roy Jenkins.
If pinned down to a favorite book, it might be something by Dostoevsky, though qualified that with Dostoevsky being "kind of grim."
Lately, he's been reading economics and history.
June 10, Wednesday evening -- Reading José Manuel Prieto
At the Hotel Rex, reading for an audience assembled by the Center for Art and Translation
Reading, eponymous to his surroundings -- Rex, his own book, first published in Spanish, which he wrote in Russia and set in Spain. He is Cuban and went to Russia originally to study engineering.
The book contains a fraudulent tutor who claims, because he has a very specific knowledge base, that all you really need to know can be learned from A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. This is in contrast to the reader in the post below.
June 10, Wednesday evening -- Reading a spiritual book
In the Financial District, trying to raise some cash
Reading Steps to Christ and Revolution: The Bible for Teen Guys, which he got at Youth With A Mission, on Ellis Street.
If he were to write a book, it'd be to help kids get off the street and include the steps you have to take. In summary -- get help, get a job, get an address.
Favorite book -- The Bible. It's the only book, he said, that will really teach you about life.
June 10, Wednesday evening -- Reading Mark Mills
Manning a candy shop on Sutter Street
Reading Savage Garden, by Mark Mills, which she got, with about fifteen other books, at Waterstones, a bookstore in Picadilly, London. They have a good three-for-two deal there and she likes the layout and it's quiet. If she walks into, say, Borders, she can't find anything. But at Watermarks, she stocks up.
Favorite book -- Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. Favorite author -- Emily Brontë -- she grew up near to where the books are set, so she can appreciate the writing even more. 
June 9, Monday evening -- Reading Stephenie Meyer
Waiting for the traffic light -- readers don't cross when the light is red
Reading Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. She's reading these with a coworker -- good water cooler conversation, she said. They also read the Harry Potter books.
If she were to write her own book, it'd be a family history. She grew up in the Bay Area, went to Washington high school, and is the fourth generation in her family who has lived here. Her great grandfather came from China during a time when there were quotas on immigration from China and it was common to change your name. Finding sponsors was necessary. 
June 9, Tuesday afternoon -- Reading Milan Kundera
In the Financial District at lunchtime - book vs. nap
Reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera --she'd been the only one at a party one night who hadn't read it, so she figured she should! It's great, she said, She's almost done in three sittings. This is the first book she remembers reading in the passive first person voice. The narrator, even though he has created his characters, is not really sure why they act the way they do.
Other good books she's read recently -- Amulet, by Roberto Bolaño and The Informers, by Bret Easton Ellis.
When she was a child her parents had a huge library. She would take books from it and pretend to read them....books that were much too complicated. And then she'd read her Shel Silverstein books instead.
June 8, Monday morning -- Reading Judith Butler
On the 38 Geary bus
Reading Precarious Life, by local Berkeley author and professor, Judith Butler. He has read most of Judith Butler's work. She writes about feminism, queer theory, political philosophy and ethics. Precarious Life is about the post 9-11 world and how the war on terror asks the question: are some of us more human than others? For instance, the media refusing to show wounded or dead Iraqis or Afghans creates a "hierarchy of grief."
A favorite -- Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, for the language. We both, while the bus heaved down Geary Street, reveled in the poetry, especially, and I brought this up because it still sticks with me, the scene where.... (click below to read more) 
after a whale has been hauled on board, the hardened sailors are sitting around a vat squeezing the lumps out of the waxy substance found in the sperm whales head, which is called sperm: ...a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers' hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this vocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say - Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities; or know the slightest ill humor or envy!
June 5, Friday morning -- Shopping for books
Exiting BART, shopping for the next book on her Kindle.
She just finished reading The Warlord's Daughter, a sci fi romance by Susan Grant. She is "blowing through ridiculous romances" right now, during her commute. She is also reading Civility: The Manners, Morals & Etiquette of Democracy, Stephen L.Carter; Integrity, by Stephen L Carter; Integrity: The Courage To Meet The Demands of Reality, by Henry Cloud; Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior, by Helmut Schoeck; and The Virtue of Civility, by Edward Shils.
The last two books, she explained, and I quote from follow-up email she wrote me that afternoon,
are what i am digesting currently, i use this word as to simply READ them is not sufficient as this is thought-provoking content and requires "mental digestion" to really get the idea of what the "glue" consists of that makes us a functioning civilization and not a rag-tag band of moral miscreants and barbarians!!!
The concept of envy as a driving force for achievement and the acquisition of material wealth is a hidden concept until really thought about and the actual "word" is given. have you ever thought about what drives you to "want". Most think of envy in a negative way, we think envy = jealousy alone, but apply it to want or desire and you have "wish", "desire", "want", "crave" even "covet" .....where's my thesaurus......
Her favorite books in high school were the Lord of the Rings series and, later, the Dune series, by Frank Herbert.
June 2, Tuesday evening -- Reading Lee Child
Reading Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child.
He just finished his semester -- he's a literature student and was taking a class about the Bible, where they read everything from Milton to Monty Python. Lee Child books are what he reads for fun. He's addicted to them, though says they're gratuitous....but cheap.
Favorite book -- Songs of Innocence and Experience, poetry by William Blake. It's the only book he knows of which is alive. Every word shifts from moment to moment. He quoted The Tiger (which he said was the stupidest example because it's stereotypical) -- "What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
If he were to write a book it'd be about BART. For instance -- when the Millbrae train is heading towards Millbrae, it's a Millbrae train, but, though the passengers get there, the Millbrae Train lacks this satisfaction. It arrives as the Pittsburg/Bay Point (it loops around before pulling into the station).
His favorite book when he was a child was written by the actress who played Mary Poppins -- Julie Andrews Edwards. The book is called The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.
(The foot continues to recover -- today I made a show of phenomenal physical well being and helped load his extra bike onto the train -- it's his girlfriend's and she wasn't able to go home after their ride.)
May 30, Saturday morning -- Reading Hilda Doolittle
At a laundromat on Valencia Street
Reading Tribute to Freud, by Hilda Doolittle, which he found, along with Saint Augustine Confesssions, in a box on the street not far from the laundromat. He is a Christian and enjoys reading about theology, of all religions. The library book in his hands is The Science of the Soul, by Maharaj Jagat Singh Ji, which, he said, talks about Indian religions, the third eye that Indian women wear, the sixth sense.
When he's not reading books, he reads the "scoop" column in the newspaper about the birthdays of Hollywood stars, etc. His mother was a big reader of tabloids and when he was growing up the only thing he read was the Star, Globe, and National Enquirer. He didn't read books.
Now, after going through AA and reading The Big Book, he's found religion and he's become studious. His favorite book is the Bible. A passage he likes: Psalm 119:97. He recited, "Oh how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day." His meditation, he said, is a zeal for knowledge.
May 28, Thursday evening -- Reading Woody Guthrie
In the Mission District, en route from New York City to Seattle, stopping by to see a friend and reading Bound for Glory, by Woody Guthrie, which he picked up at a second-hand book store in Albuquerque, not far from the Greyhound Station. (link to pic of station and my experience with Albuquerque Greyhound)
His favorite books -- Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion (he has another of her books in his bag -- Miami); Hard Times, by Studs Terkel; and Ask the Dust, by John Fante, which he read because it's Bukowski's favorite book, and now he likes Fante better because the writing is better and it's less sexist. He reads these books and authors repeatedly.
When he was a kid, it was The Boxcar Children mysteries, by Gertrude Chandler Warner that got him into reading. Same era as the Bobbsey Twins. The books, he said, transport you the way literature should.
If he were to write his own book, it would be about people. In fact, he's already written a 'zine about his travels, which include the people (and books) along the way. He gave me a copy. From the back cover -- If you want to read "Tales of Roman Stone," ask your local bookstore if they can order it. If they can't, or you don't have a local bookstore anymore, write me and I'll lend you mine. (It's a guidebook to Rome, not with hip bars but with anecdotes and legends.)
...if you don't have a local bookstore anymore --have any in your neighborhood gone missing?May 27, Wednesday afternoon -- Reading Stephenie Meyer
In a little garden not far from where I work in the Financial District - from my windowless cube to sunshine. Today was the first time I've been able to leave the building for lunch since my foot surgery and in this park there was not just one reader, but two. Abundance.
Reading New Moon, the second book in the series, by Stephenie Meyer. She's almost done, and has already bought the third, but is lagging behind her friends, most of whom have already finished the series.
Favorite book – too hard of a question.
Something good she’s read recently - The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille.
When she was young, a couple of books she remembers that got her into reading – The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Calico Captive, a children's historical fiction novel, by Elizabeth George Speare.
Her own book – it’d be about attorneys. She works at an attorney placement company. Something gossipy, but without breaching confidence -- she gave no details.
March 22, Friday evening -- Reading Nora Roberts
At the top of the 24th Street BART escalator, selling crocheted hand warmers (on Saturday she'll be selling fried dough buñuelos...which I love), reading La Dama del Faro, by Nora Roberts.
Her favorite author -- Stephen King, especially his book, Needful Things. She reads sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish.
If she were to write her own book, it would be poetry. For now, she writes poems for friends and family.
March 22, Friday evening -- Reading William Burroughs
After work at Norton's Vault
Reading Junky, by William S. Burroughs. Before this he was reading Jack Kerouac and this was a natural transition. Also in his bag, which he pulled out to show me, was A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life, by Jack Kornfield, which merges Eastern and Western ideas.
His favorite book is The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway and, he, he said, getting back to the question later, The Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman.
When he was younger, the books that got him into reading were The Lord of the Rings series and The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis.
May 21, Thursday evening -- Reading a book for middle school students
She would not show me the book. It was something she was previewing so she could put it out for the middle school students she teaches. She also didn't want her picture on the internet, which I can respect. Different people have different comfort zones.
When she reads for herself, she enjoys history. Something she recommends -- A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn. It reads, she said, like a novel. The book includes voices not heard from in traditional histories of our country, like the voices of war resisters and American Indians.
***
Today I also got an email back from the reader I photographed two days ago, the woman who was reading Thomas Merton. She was going to give me her blog address with her poetry, and she came through. The poem she'd let me read on her phone, the one about Barack Obama, is linked to here.
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