Waiting for a friend
Reading Holes, by Louis Sachar, which he found at a bus stop earlier in the evening. It's about a boy in a juvenile detention camp. Ironically, he's also reading another book he found at a bus stop, at Valencia and 16th Street, about all the letters that O.J. Simpson got when he was in prison.
If you have too many books on your shelves, put them in places where people wait. They will get read. They probably don't even have to be about incarceration.
He hasn't read anything else recently. He's not a reader. It's just a coincidence, he said, that I happened to find him reading and that he's reading two books right now.
What did he like when he was a kid? Curious George books by H.A. and Margret Rey. Here's more bits of praise for the monkey in these posts.
His own book--it'd be about his life. In 2003 he moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles and became a limo driver and he's happier than he's ever been. Why? The people. San Franciscans, he said, are so friendly. And diverse. Where he lived in East Los Angeles all he'd ever known were Hispanic people and Caucasian people. When he first came to San Francisco he was intimidated by how different everyone was, but now he likes it. One of his best friends is from Jordan.
All you need, he told me, is enough food, clothes, a place to sleep, and that, if his life remained the same as it is now, he'd be happy forever. He wants to drive a taxi, too, as well as the limo, so that he can talk to more people.
What have you read that you found on the street?
4 Comments:
"If you have too many books on your shelves, put them in places where people wait. They will get read."
but first register them on bookcrossing.com :)
A well-worn copy of Cruddy by Lynda Barry, which I found on a bench in a mall. It was a pleasant surprise.
Your page is an inspired idea, by the way. Always interesting.
Another recommendation for bookcrossing.com! I can't wait to find out someone picked up a book at their bus stop and it turns out to be a book I released some time back.
No, I haven't read a book I found on the street, but I did read Holes recently. My thirteen year old suggested I read it while I was between books, the we rented the movie. It was good! Sometimes a young adult read is great!
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