Sunday, November 20, 2011

Salinger sighting

I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon waiting for my four-year-old daughter in the lobby of a dance studio. While a gaggle of waiting-room regulars (all moms, except for me) chatted away about the upcoming recital and I entered a self-imposed smart-phone exile, I noticed I wasn't the only male in the room after all.

Huddled in the corner was a kid of about fifteen, who was engrossed in a book I couldn't quite make out. Curious about what it is that fifteen-year-olds read while waiting in suburban Georgia dance studios, I found some reason to get up and wander over for a closer look. The book was Nine Stories, by J.D. Salinger. 





This is a collection that includes two of my all-time favorite short stories: "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esme- with Love and Squalor." Needless to say, my faith in humanity was bolstered.

If you're a book voyeur like me, you might enjoy this tumblr blog run by a group of self-proclaimed publishing nerds who steal surreptitious glances at the reading material of their fellow New Yorkers, and document the results here.

What about you? What books have you seen in the hands of your fellow men recently? Anything good?



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