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.