July 15 - September 5, 2007

Finishing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my literary tour of the lower 48, in 52 days all on, as some of the drivers put it, the Big Dog--Greyhound.



All photos and interviews have been posted (finally) and.... I've even flipped it so it reads chronologically! You can meander through the states in the order that I did or go to "Readers By State" on the sidebar. You can also do a search for your favorite book and see who else likes it, too.

Thank you to everyone I met along the way--it would have been impossible to successfully complete my journey, and have a good time without wonderful, wonderful people who took care of me, gave me advice and, this was up there with Niagara Falls, The Grand Canyon, and the roller coaster in Atlantic City--let me give them advice.
Thanks again!
Sonya

p.s. I've begun photographing San Franciscans again and am posting at

www.peoplereading.blogspot.com

San Francisco, CA -- My Living Room -- Preparing to go -- June 29, 2007

The results of my Sticky-Note-the-US Dinner Party:

As with any project, input is key. I invited an intimate crowd--just enough to fill my little living room--of smart, creative friends over for chili and cornbread to brainstorm, if given eight weeks to explore the country and photograph people reading books, where they would go.

The stickies yielded everything from a wacky Key West home roamed by the descendants of Hemingway's six-toed cats to a practical visit to the Greyhound headquarters.

But it wasn't just stickies that the party yielded, there were also questions. The big one--why?

I'm not quite sure what the impetus was, if it was the tug of armchair traveler envy I felt while reading Melinda Henneberger's If They Only Listened to Us: What Women Voters Want Poiticians to Hear, in which the author traveled around the United States interviewing voters, or if it was my friend Sasha Cagen's return from Boulder's World Affairs Counsel and declaring, "we live in a bubble," if it was my two-year anniversary of working at a bank or if it was simply unquelled wanderlust, but the need surfaced: I needed to leave the comfortable surroundings of San Francisco, a town I've loved and lived in over the past five years.

When I was twenty-three and I got this feeling, I felt it necessary to test myself physically and traverse the Pyrenees, lose myself in the woods, break down crying on tree stumps and carry a pack much too heavy for my hundred-pound frame. Now, at thirty, I feel a need to do this.

I've never been to the Grand Canyon. Never been to Graceland. I'm not well-read, and I crave to be well-read. I'm a slow reader, and sometimes it feels like I'll never catch up. I need to acknowledge that pain and agony and solitariness of writing is worthwhile. I like to talk to strangers. I like adventures. And this is the right adventure for now.

When I return, I wonder:

Will the hipsters on Valencia Street feel more or less familiar?
Will my friends seem more or less familiar?
How will I want to change my life?
What I will have gotten out of it?
What books will I need to read?
and
What will I want to write about?

Thank you for reading.

San Francisco, CA -- Preparing to go

Packing

On my way home from a goodbye brunch, up and over Bernal Hill to the Mission District, after borrowing the perfect sized backpack from my friend, Sasha, I solicited packing advice. Who wouldn't after seeing such a well packed cart. The secret--separate compartments. Sasha's bag (the blue one on the ground) has these.

But, the cart isn't meant just for admiring. He collects the bottles and other recyclables to earn $400, which is necessary to apply for citizenship so he can get work legally. A year and a half ago he and his wife, who works caring for the elderly, moved here from the Philippines. When his cart is full--every couple days or so--it brings in about $25. His favorite book? Nothing in particular, just what he used to study English with at City college when he had the time and money to take classes.

Packing thanks also goes to Rai Sue who helped me weed down my gear. The functionality of a compartment is no good if you can't get the zippers closed.

My Favorite Books (at least for the next couple months)

While I had originally intended to do this trip entirely on friend recommendations (see yellow stickies below) and stranger recommendations, near the end I panicked and did a reality check. Books are always a good thing.

My friend, Jenny, gave me this 1,000 Places to See Before you Die guide by Patricia Schultz. I bought the Lonely Planet guide partly out of loyalty (I worked for them briefly a couple of years ago), but mostly because it was thinner than everything else on the shelf of the bookstore....and it gives bus station information. The "Romantic Seine" journal is a souveneir from Korea and a gift from my friend, Anhoni, who is, coincidentally, working on a novel about L.A.--stop #1 on my adventure. I have an assignment to photograph the bus station so she can add detail to a scene!

Not photographed is After Dark by Haruki Murakami, which was a gift from my sister.

A milestone!

In the midst of packing I completed 500 postings of PeopleReading, which is mostly in San Francisco and mostly people, though some sculptures, murals, and advertisements snuck in. Still, its a milestone. First San Francisco, now the country. What's next--the world??? I'll start enrolling in language classes.

That said,
I am emotional and I will miss you, San Francisco.... and my friends, as well.

Also, goodbye Ritual, goodbye peaceful Sugarlump may there be free wireless throughout the U.S..

San Francisco, CA -- Greyhound Terminal --July 14, 2007

The day before my departure

At the Greyhound terminal, downtown San Francisco

Purchased my sixty-day Discovery Pass and visited the gift store where you can buy postcards, medication, shot glasses and, of course, books. What else would people need when embarking upon a bus trip?

As it's San Francisco, it is fitting to find a title regarding gender and sexuality--Unspeakable, the Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America, by Roger Streitmatter.

At the counter I met Mike, who told me about how Howard Hughes made his money--prompted by my $645 Discovery Pass expenditure--and named his favorite book, the Bible, specifically Romans and the Psalms.

With him was his coworker, reading Kindred, by Octavia Butler.

Her daughter was reading it for an English course at City College and gave it to her when she was finished. Their family moved to San Francisco from Burma six years ago.

When she reads, she reads in tandem with her Burmese dictionary so she can make notes on the parts of speech and meanings of the words.

Her favorite book--she doesn't have one, she just likes to read to study English.

San Francisco, CA --Greyhound Terminal -- July 15, 2007

Reading Escape, Stories of Getting Away, edited by Lena Lencek and Gideon Basker. It's the "fun stuff" she's readng in between a book about the social history of family violence. She bought the book for its title--it's what she needed.

She works in theater arts and that is why she is studying the social history of family violence. She takes an interdisciplinary approach. I'd wanted to hear more about this, but she let me know that she needed to return to her escape.

San Francisco, CA to Los Angeles, CA -- Greyhound Station -- July 15/16, 2007

My Seat Partner

In Oakland I was joined by...my super fabulous seat partner. I hope I always get this lucky. In the eight hour ride to Los Angeles, I slept for nearly have of it. He sang himself--and consequently, me too--to sleep with songs by the Brazilian band Djivan (I think that's what he said. When I google it it comes up as an Armenian musician but I'd thought he'd said Brazilian.)

His favorite author of all time--Paulo Coelho. Coelho, he said, with the knowledge of someone whose first language is Portuguese, means Rabbit. He also said that, though Coelho is a best selling author, he read an article somewhere that says that a lot of people don't finish his books. They just sit on the shelf.

Another favorite Brazilian author--Jorge Amado, who he described as writing soap opera-like stories about the history of Brazil.

He is also reading The Power of Now, which he's discussed with his nine-year-old daughter, who has no problem with living in the now. Children, he said, don't have to worry about paying the bills.

Heading into L.A.

Early in the morning, heading into Los Angeles, sharing the road with mostly just the truckers.

Los Angeles, CA -- July 16, 2007

Arrive Los Angeles, CA 7:50am Monday, July 16
Depart Los Angeles, CA 11:10am, Tuesday July 17



The night before I left town, my friend Francis called to say he was in my hometown, Helena, Montana...a few weeks earlier than my anticipated July 27th Helena arrival date, for my mom's birthday. He didn't, however, arrive by Greyhound bus like I will. He came on foot through unpaved, likely treacherous terrain.

In the beginning of April he began walking the Continental Divide trail from New Mexico up to Canada and intends to “yo-yo” the trail, returning back to New Mexico in the fall. I’m doing the antithesis of what you’re doing! I explained on the phone, imagining my body atrophying at the back of the bus, becoming a hunk of margarine as I head into the south, butter as I cruise into the Midwest and regressing into into a puddle of melted lard as I head into the sweltering south. But, after walking all over L.A. today--sometimes double crossing and circling--I'm convinced that, while my goal is not as lofty as Francis's, we are, in a literal sense, on a parallel adventure. We're both yo-yoing the U.S.. You can find his book, Hike Your Own Hike on this Continental Divide website.

My abundance of walking was due to my unplanned itinerary. I was too busy saying goodbye to San Francisco to think about L.A., until I got there. And, as with anything, it takes a while to get the kinks out. I was hoping to have photos that showed the character of Los Angeles--the Hollywood sign in the background, a lovely beach or even a movie star, but failed completely. This is not a big deal. What matters most, anywhere, is the people and its the people that will be continue to be the focus of this project.

Los Angeles, CA -- North Hollywood Greyhound Station -- July 16, 2007

Reading El Conde de Montecristo, by Alejandro Dumas.

Also reading Mi vida, by Bill Clinton.

Her favorite author--Cuauhtemoc Sanchez, who has written La Ultima Oportunidad, La Fuerza del Cecid and Valor Sobre El Pantano.

She also loves the Chicken Soup series. She tried to get her children, ages 16 and 20, to read Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, but they weren't interested.

Los Angeles, CA --On Sunset blvd, heading toward UCLA -- July 16, 2007

Reading Signs of Life in the USA, Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, by Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, while trying to write a paper that's due in half an hour. The book discusses the objectification of women, how, sometimes, in advertising, a woman's body is shown but not her face as if she has no identity.

His favorite stories--bible stories about David....he took the time to tell me the story of David and Goliath, explaining how, before a battle they would often take the strongest man on each side and have them fight each other first and how, when Goliath was brought out, no one wanted to fight him...except for little David who was bringing his brothers food for the strength during the battle.

He also likes Spiderman comics.

Los Angeles, CA --Hollywood, outside Roxy theater on Sunset Blvd. -- July 16, 2007

Reading Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. This is her third time reading it. She picks it up again whenever she needs to feel good, that feeling of being able to stand by something, because she doesn't see it around her in real life. Reading it makes her more honest with people. It's weird, she says, but in a way I want the characters to approve of me.

She also likes The Fountainhead; "girly stuff" like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; Joseph Heller's Catch 22; the Harry Potter books; and David Sedaris. You have to read Me talk Pretty One Day she said and went on to describe how she'd been laughing out loud in public.

If she were to write her own novel, it would be loosely based on her family. She has four sisters and three brothers and they all grew up together in L.A. They were raised to respect people and they were often very close knit and not very social outside of themselves.

All of her sisters, except one, who likes Anne of Green Gables, considers Atlas Shrugged their favorite book.

Los Angeles, CA -- UCLA Medical Center Deli -- July 16, 2007

Reading Goya, by Robert Hughes, about the painter. He prefers to read nonfiction, especially history. He is also reading a book about World War II battle called Leyte Gulf. He wasn't in the battle himself, but he was nearby. When he reads fiction he likes short stories set in Spain, by Hemingway.

Has he ever read anything that has helped him pass through a stage of his life? No. And, he's not going to start now. He was on his way to get a bone scan and refuses to educate himself about cancer because that's not going to help anything.

Los Angeles, CA -- Will and Ariel Durant Branch of the Public Library -- July 16, 2007

The man at the information desk said he never really noticed what people were checking out, but that he gets asked for the bestsellers, the Grishams and Daniel Steele which he remarked was popular with the Russian population.

Wendy, the children's librarian didn't comment on the popularity of any books at the library, though did say that they have a large selection of Russian language books because the neighborhood has a high Russian population.

One of her favorite children's novels is Bat 6, by Virginia Euwer Wolff. It's historical fiction and is about what happens to children when adults don't discuss the nature of prejudice.

She's just finished reading Farewell Fifth Avenue, by Cornelius Vanderbilt. It's a biography of what he did during the depression--he walked outside his bubble and toured the country to see how it was affecting people in other places.

Los Angeles, CA -- Melrose Ave. -- July 16, 2007

At Ferro E. Inc. -- Artistico in Iron and Crystal

In a shop on Melrose, while in search of a cafe called Elixir from one of the sticky notes, I decided to abandon my pride and duck into a shop to ask for directions. He makes custom chandeliers for well-to-do clients in the Beverly Hills, wrought by hand, individually crafted. It was truly an amazing store.

His favorite author is the lyricist and writer for the band, Rush, Neil Peart, who has written four books about bicycle and motorcycle touring. We sat for a long time and talked while I recharged--it was hard adapting to the hot L.A. weather after cool San Francisco and being out and about all day instead of sitting behind a desk at work, navigating bus lines instead of just getting on and off the Bart train at 24th and Montgomery Streets.

Later I will try to add a few lines here about what he told me about Neal Peart.

Los Angeles, CA -- Teahouse on Melrose -- July 16, 2007

From the first sticky note....the tea garden on Melrose Ave, formerly known as Elixir.


Reading Be Honest, You're Not That Into Him, Either, Raise Your Standards And Reach For the Love You Deserve, by Ian Kerner.

The woman on the left: Has been reading the Gossip Girls series. It's like eating a cupcake, she said. It's done in two days. You get into the characters. There's boy drama, school drama. It's a guilty pleasure. She's read all nine books so far. The last one came out in April and she savored it a little longer, reading it over the span of a week, but she's bummed because the next one won't come out until October!

If she were to write a book herself it would be a self-help history of fashion how-to book.

The woman on the right: She likes to read romance novels, breaking them up with comedy when she's feeling stressed, like The Man Who Ate the 747, by Ben Sherwood. It's ha ha cute, she said.

Her favorite book--The Italian. Another favorite book is Endless Love, by Scott Spencer. The characters, she said, are so messed up that, when you compare them to your own life you feel good. There's a guy who obsesses about a girl who lives in a broken home and they have a relationship, but it's an unhealthy relationship.

A book that helped her get through her high school years--an autobiography of Grace Kelly. You see this woman who you would think is so perfect, but she's not and her imperfections make you feel it's okay to be imperfect.

If she were to write her own book, it would be about her life and all the drama in it. She's the black sheep of her family.

Los Angeles, CA --Bodhi Tree Bookstore on Melrose Ave. -- July 16, 2007

I talked to the staff about what people were reading, interested in, buying these days. #1 on the list for the week ending 7/13/07 was Life's Too Short to Have Tantric Sex: 50 Shortcuts to Sexual Ecstasy, by Dr. Judy ; The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne; Abraham, by Esther and Jerry Hicks; books by the Indian mystic Osho. Popular among women has been Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert.

The manager (I think he was the manager): He recommends two great books by Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which is about individuality and going against the flock and the Illusions, a mental science book about how reality is what you focus on in an experience.

A woman with the most amazingly long, thick hair (maybe she was the manager?): She likes
The Mysts of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley--she's really into into feminine mystique and the goddess. It's a fictionalized account of the time of King Arthur. She also loves The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffinegger.

And, at the register, reading The Spirit of Aikido, by Kisshomaru Ueshiba.

He has never done aikido, but is thinking about taking it up. His favorite book of all time--Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda.

Los Angeles, CA --A French restaurant on Melrose, Ave. -- July 16, 2007

Reading the first "movement" of A Dance to the Music of Time, by Anthony Powell. There are four movements, each containing about three books. The books describe the lives of four men, their love lives and their professional lives. The books must be read slowly to fully appreciate them. Powell, he said, does subtlety and understatement better than anyone.
One of his favorite books--The Code of the Woosters, by P.G. Wodehouse, a great British humor writer. It's about a gentleman of leisure and his valet, Jeeves.

He is a writer himself, writing comedy and features. He worked on 40 Days and 40 Nights.

Los Angeles, CA -- Hollywood -- July 17, 2007

Hollywood

I woke up in the morning wondering if I should depart Los Angeles without ever seeing the Hollywood sign--am I a complete failure as a tourist?

But, while I was running to the bus station--I was cutting it close, living by the motto of using as much wireless time as possible--I looked up and, there it was. Ha! My initial plan for this trip was to try to capture the character of the cities I visited within the photos, something I hadn't done the day before. Now, admittedly, I did have to ask this kind woman, who I met at the bus terminal and who just happened to be a book dealer, to walk two blocks down the street so I could get this sign in the photo. And, admittedly, the sign is so small and smoggy that you have to squint, but it is there.

What's she reading? Don't ask, she says. It's not a leather bound Mark Twain, she apologized and then amended that even book dealers should not be held to a high standard all the time. Her favorite books--anything by Kurt Vonnegut. She just got back from traveling in Europe to discover that he died!

I will be, when I hit Indianapolis, Indiana, Vonnegut's hometown, be paying my homage to the author.

Hollywood

While the above shot is completely lacking in integrity , the one below is just as it was. We were running back to the bus station (my bus was five minutes overdue to arrive) when, right in front of us, was a man reading The Iliad, propped up on a newspaper box! He was just closing it as I was getting my camera out and, as I didn't have the time to explain that I needed him to open it back up for the picture, I just took it as is. His favorite book--Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.

Los Angeles, CA --Downtown Greyhound Terminal -- July 17, 2007

Her first words to me, when I described my project and asked if I could take her photo were these: I read so I don't have to talk to people.

Reading A Measure of Faith, by Maxine Billings. She bought it where she buys all of her books--Walmart, for the price. She got this one for $4.84. She goes about twice a month and buys about fifteen or twenty books--black authors, historical fiction, erotica. Yes, you can buy erotica at Walmart.

Her favorite book--Malcolm X by Alex Haley, who also did the Roots series. People were riveted, she said, when it first came out and, now that it's been re-released, people are still riveted. They just stared airing it on Sunday.

She reads all the time and has books all over her house and in all of her cars so that she will always have something to read. Since she retired four years ago and spends her time traveling, returning home just long enough to check up on her plants. Inevitably, when you travel, you have to spend time waiting, but she doesn't mind, in fact she likes it. All the more time to read.

San Diego, CA -- July 17 & 18, 2007

Arrive San Diego, CA 3:30pm Tuesday, July 17
Depart San Diego, CA 10:45pm Wednesday, July 18



Warning: While I'm on the road there will be more misspellings and grammatical mistakes than usual. I've made the decision not to look up when to and when not to hyphenate, etc. and instead spend my time wallowing in the American landscape.

San Diego, CA -- Pacific Beach -- July 17, 2007

Reading The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. She borrowed it from the brother of a friend. Recently she read Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult.

Her favorite books--Corelli's Mandolin, by Louis de Bernières and The Inn at Lake Divine, by Elinor Lipman which she described as a nice story about a Jewish girl.

She and her friends are visiting here from Dublin.

San Diego, CA -- Pacific Beach -- July 17, 2007

Reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling. She likes how descriptive it is, but wishes it wasn't so long! It's 870 pages.

What else has she read lately? Nothing. She reads only the Harry Potter books. Why? She doesn't want to miss out on what everyone else is enjoying.

What she's gotten out of reading this series--if you don't go out or go to a party, you can still have a good time, and reading is good for you!

Her favorite book in the series is the third one. She thinks Ron is a goober and finds all the characters extreme.

If she were to write her own book it would be a travel novel about weird and outgoing friends traveling around the world.

San Diego, CA -- Pacific Beach -- July 17, 2007

Reading Heard That Song Before, by Mary Higgins Clark, which she got from the library. She likes light mysteries.

Her favorite authors are Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson and, most recently, a new author, Lisa Jackson.

Her favorite book--Each Bright River, by Mildred McNeilly. It's about the settling of Washington and Oregon and she's read it about twenty times.

San Diego, CA -- Pacific Beach -- July 17, 2007

Reading That Summer Place, by Debbie MacComber, Susan Wiggs and Jill Barnett.
She just finished reading The Sky is Falling, by Sidney Sheldon and picked this one up because the price was right. Usually she likes reading biographies.

Her husband is reading the Colin Powell book.

San Diego, CA -- Pacific Beach -- July 17, 2007

Reading Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography--The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane, who recently gave a presentation a workshop she attended. She works with at risk kids.

In her free time she doesn't read teaching books, and instead prefers authors like Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, who wrote The Dirty Girls Social Club series. There's only three of them, she said and wished that she would write more!

Her favorite book of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. She's read it over and over again--she likes the intrigue, the romance and the story of human perseverance.

If she were to write a book it would be a collection of stories about her students.

She's here on vacation from Phoenix with her brother who was out surfing but is the middle of reading War and Peace.

A book that's changed her life--Radical Journeys for the Inward Bound, by Andrew Weil and Tolly Berkin, who has a fire walking institute north of Santa Monica. She hasn't tried it yet, but would like to. The book talks about how to use the earth and the land to connect to the universe; for example, doing extreme sports like fire walking or rock climbing without ropes. These are things, she said, that would appeal to her students...and her brother. They are extreme.

She likes to clip out the little book blurb on the back page of the Time magazine and hang them around her house. She's excited about a book they featured by an Afghani female author.

San Diego, CA -- Pacific Beach -- July 17, 2007

Reading Don't Ever Tell: Kathy's Story: A True Tale of a Childhood Destroyed by Neglect and Fear, by Kathy O'Beirne, which had been left behind on a seat at Heathrow Airport in London. It's about abused children and it reminds her of A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer. This, she said, is so much easier to get through.

What does she like reading if she's going to seek it out herself--James Patterson. She loves murder mystery stuff. Next, though, she's going to read a book called The Good Mood Diet, by Susan M. Kleiner and Bob Condor, not because she wants to lose weight but because she wants to learn about certain foods that will boost your mood. She also likes, what she described as cute little reads, like Bridget Jones Diary, by Helen Fielding.

If she were to write her own novel it would be about her mom's death--the result of a brain tumor--when she was twelve years old. It caused her to grow up quickly so she could take care of her younger siblings.

She lives here in San Diego.

San Diego, CA -- Pacific Beach -- July 17, 2007

Reading The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck, M.D. It's about understanding how people become distressed and how they find relief. It's filled with layman's explanations of general psychological problems.

She enjoys reading mental science books, like this one and Love Against Hate, by Karl Menninger; Love, Psychology, and Biochemistry, by (?); and The Mastery of Love, by Miguel Ruiz. Recently she's been interested in love. She explained how people need to work on themselves individually in relationships. Though there's no guarantee a relationship is going to work if you do work on it, and yourself, if you don't, it will fail for sure.

And, with that, she noticed that my skin was turning blue--I'd been so excited to get to a beach that, even though I'd arrived at 5pm, I put on my swimming suit and over the course of the above conversations, which lasted about three hours, it got cold. She loaned me her towel and suggested it might be a good idea to return to the hostel we were both staying at.

Love was lost in the dust and the interview instead grew into a trip to Whole Foods to take photos of produce which was both organic and local--a novelty she's not used to in Boston, where she lives. Thanks for the entertainment--that was so fun. Looking back on it, I'm sure the staff at Whole Foods was amused as well!

San Diego, CA -- Starbucks near Pacific Beach -- July 17, 2007

Reading The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. He hadn't read it before and doesn't know if he will read the rest of the books because he doesn't want to contaminate his memories of the movies. He is bothered when the book doesn't gell with the movie and vice versa.

What else he's been reading lately--a periodical called Science News. This is the first fiction he's read in a long while. Before this he was reading books on wine and Buddhism--not both in the same book. What he got out of the wine book--wine is like art. The beauty of it has nothing to do with the price but rather its a mysterious combination and dependent on taste. High prices can make things like homes or cars better but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll like the wine.

The Buddhism books--he's read about two dozen of them. One of them, The Art of Happiness, by Dalai Lama,Howard C. Cutler, is written by an American who interviewed the Dali Lama over several years. The book combines the contents of these interviews with Western concepts. Through reading it he developed more compassion toward people, and every little bit of compassion you gain is rewarding. He thinks more about putting himself in other people's positions.

Does he have a favorite book? No. He doesn't have a favorite anything.

If he were to write his own book it would be set in the Mid-South, in Mississippi or Western Tennessee. It would have strange and eccentric characters, some who are nasty, evil deplorable, who have tendencies towards destructive nonsense. He's fascinated about using imagination to cross lines that most people don't let their mind cross and really liked the book American Psycho, by X. It's a terrible movie, he said, but the book is great--frightening, disturbing, descriptions of a sick mind. He said there's something fascinating about the willingness to go so far because most people are fearful, afraid of this or that.

He's in town for work. He's a metal crafter (that may not be the right word).

San Diego, CA -- Downtown Branch of The Public Library -- July 18, 2007

The children's librarian named some books that are popular among the children:
1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
2. The Charlie Bone series, which is also about wizards, by Jenny Nimmo
3. The Eragon books by Christopher Paolini.
4. The Magic Treehouse series (for first to third graders), by Mary Pope Osborne
5. Bridge to Terabithia, by (for third to sixth graders), by Katherine Patterson
6. The Judy Moody series, by Morgan McDonald
7. Bailey School Kids series, by Marcia Thornton Jones

She recommends to children Bridge to Terabithia and Babe, by Dick King-Smith and, of course, the Harry Potter series.

She's even reading the Harry Potter series. She has an eleven-year-old son and they like to talk about the books together. He takes Accelerator Reader tests on the books, which put him in the running for going out to lunch with a teacher, dependent on how many books are read and the Acceleartor Reader test scores. Usually her son gets 90-100%!

******

The information desk librarian said that any time Oprah recommends a book there's a big run on it. Right now everyone wants to read The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne. Other popular authors are James Patterson and Ann Rule. Then, there are the car repair manuals; books on the Iraq war and Bush scandals; computer books on Illustrator, Photoshop or Final Cut Pro; musical scores; graphic novels; and Harry Potter.
*****
The Language and Literature librarian told me that, on the waiting list are A Thousand Splendid Sons and Janet Evanovitch's Lean Mean Thirteen and, if they had been able to order them (they're having issues with their budget and computer system), The Bourne Betrayal, by Eric Van Lustbader and New England White, by Stephen Carter.

San Diego, CA -- Worrenbrok's Book House -- July 18, 2007

At Worrenbrok's Book House, a used bookstore on Broadway in downtown San Diego, I asked what people were buying. The man at the register answered with a laugh and said if he knew that he'd be a millionaire. He told me about two local authors--Harry Crosby, who writes about California history and Wade Miller (a pseudonym), who writes reviews for the San Diego Union Tribune online and has a series of private eye books that are now out of print.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach -- July 18, 2007

Reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling. She'll be going to Ralph's grocery to get the latest one when it comes out.


...not the cake, the book. Her kids, who are ages 12, 17, 18, 20, and 26, read the Harry Potter books, but don't like Harry himself much as a character, that, especially in the fifth book he's whiny. Her kids say she reminds them of Hermione, because she's scholastic (she home schooled all of them) and that her youngest daughter is like Luna Lovegood because she's spacey.

Topics she likes to read about: spiritual, fun stuff (like Harry Potter), and parenting.

Favorite spiritual books--The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck and Abandonment to Divine Providence, by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, which was originally written in the 15th century and has been redone so it's easier to grasp. She read the revised version but did read parts of the original. Also, The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous which reminds that as human beings we are naturally inclined to run from our feelings, but that's not what will help us most.

Other favorites--The Secret Lives of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. She loved the unexpected message about the maternal needs that people have. Also, Beyond Consequences, by Dr. Brian Post, which is about early life trauma; and A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle, which she'd read as a teenager and just reread now with her kids. Her kids were not too thrilled with it, though. And, in her adult reading she was surprised that it was Science Fiction. She hadn't thought she liked Science Fiction when she was young.

They were cleaning out her twenty-year-old son's room the other day to make room for some friends who are coming for the Comic-Con convention and he insisted that they save the Redwall series, by Brian Jacques--he wants to pass it down to his kids. There are, she said, with a look of mild exasperation--about seventeen or eighteen books in the series.

Her whole family loves books. Her seventeen-year-old son has reading disabilities but avidly listens to audio versions of books.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach -- July 18, 2007

Reading Digital Fortress, by Dan Brown. She was reading Divinci Code after a Halloween party last year and her friend gave her this book to read. It's good, she says.

Her favorite book? One that she read when she was a child called The Rainbabies, by Laura Krauss Melmed.

If she wrote her own book it would be about love and relationships and how they work.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach -- July 18, 2007

Reading To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Before this he read Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. He's into old southern style of writing and setting. And, this time around, now that he's not in high school any more, he's able to better appreciate the nuances in characters and the interactions between them.

This summer he's also read The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky and he plans on reading 1984, by George Orwell next.

If he were to write his own novel it would be about a Kerouac-like character, showing people instead of telling them that it's possible to live more freely. People in America, he said, bear nine to five work schedules and shitty jobs because they think they have to. They don't let themselves be free. He's show someone with a crazy-ass life style.

His favorite book, The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. He's read it at least eight times. It's about an old man who lives on an island and a ship is coming for him. This is death. Before he goes, the people in the village stop him and ask him questions about love, friendship and death. It took the author ten years to write the book, as it's a poem and he chose every word carefully.

This summer he's down staying in his friend's grandparents beach house while volunteering at an AIDS clinic and taking nutrition classes.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach -- July 18, 2007

They're here all together, from Southern Utah and Michigan, for a family reunion. There are thirty of them and, at any given time, at least ten of them will be reading at once. If you were to walk into the house, said the woman in pink, you'd think it was a crime scene--everyone lying all over the place.
Left : Reading Snowflower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See. Recently she read Object Lessons, by Anna Quindlen. If she were to write her own book it'd be about her friends and family at the beach--like now! She loaned her mother Twilight, by Stephanie Meyers, which received a lot of teasing for. It's a love story between a human and a vampire. (If I got this wrong, let me know, I'm reading over my notes two days later and now I'm not sure.)

Middle: Reading Forever, by Pete Hamill. One of her favorite books is The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole, by Stephanie Doyan, which is about the top two kids in sports and academics growing up and how later in life, they are able to be compassionate towards each other. Her daughter is reading the second book in the Little House on the Prairie series, by, Laura Ingalls Wilder, which surprises her--she never liked them growing up. She preferred Nancy Drew. Her husband's favorite book--The Divinci Code, by Dan Brown. She laughed and said it's the only thing she's ever seen him read.

Right: Reading Summer Reading, by Hilma Wolitzer. It's set in South Hampton and looks at social classes through three different story lines--a privileged society woman, a maid, and a woman who runs a summer reading group. Also in her bag is a book is Saturday, by Ian McEwan, which her husband loaned her. Inside the book he'd tucked a bookmark that reads, "Always read stuff that makes you look good if you die in the middle." The last book she gave him to read was The Kite Runner. Three years ago her son got married and she's thrilled that his wife shares her tastes in reading. They trade books back and forth. The last she gave her was The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards. Her daughter-in-law gave her Jewell, by Brett Lott and they both have just finished The Way We Never Were, by Stephanie Coontz, which is a look at the not-so-idyllic 1950s, how not everyone, including minority women didn't really have it so great.

What else is the family reading? --the Mom, she's reading, as mentioned above, Twilight, by Stephanie Meyers. The eighteen-year old nephew--1776, by David McCullough. The seventeen year old nephew--Catch 22, by Joseph Heller. Also, and I forget who-- Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach -- July 18, 2007

Reading Einfuhrung in die Test- und Fragebogenkonstruktion, by Markus Buhner. It's a statistics book. He's a psychologist.

What has he learned from it? Far too difficult, he said, to explain to someone without a background it statistics.

I didn't try to fake it.

If he were to write his own novel it would be about patient satisfaction.

His wife's favorite book--A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving.


The daughter in the red shirt likes fantasy books, like Ink Hard, by a German author. (I don't think I got this right.)

The daughter in the pink dress (and the Mom?) likes books by the Sweedish author, Astrid Lindgren, who is famous in Europe and here, too, for her Pippi Longstocking stories.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach -- July 18, 2007

Reading A Cat in the Manger, by Lydia Adamson. She bought it at the Goodwill store for a good price.

Her favorite book? She reads every single night and so has problems differentiating them from each other, let alone picking a favorite. She likes detective stories.

Her favorite book--something she read years ago called The Book of Tish, by May Roberts RyanHart, which is about two old ladies who go to the Grand Canyon and one of them loses her teeth while looking over a railing. (I hadn't told her I was going there, but made a mental note to suck my teeth inward when I went.)

She worked on an Indian Reservation as a Home Economics teacher and once wrote an easy things cookbook for her family. One of the dishes--put macaroni, vegetables, and ground beef or chicken, though, she lemented, that people like meatless dishes these days.

She also wrote a story about whiperwhils while she was at a writing workshop, which she calls flying bug traps, for their ability to funnel bugs into their beak with their long whiskers. She has a memoir planned in which she'll include this story. She's ninety-one and here at the beach celebrating her granddaughter's sixteenth birthday. They're from Yuma.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach -- July 18, 2007

Reading Pregnancy for Dummies, by Joanne Stone, MD; Keith Eddleman, MD; and Mary Duenwald. She's five weeks pregnant. Her husband is playing Tetris--addictive, he says. Though, he's also reading the Pregnancy for Dummies book, just not all the way through like she is. He looks for the interesting parts. Right now she's reading about what she's experiencing now--cramps, fatigue, nausea, constipation. Fun!

They have several Dummies, books that have made it through several moves--her husband is in the Navy--including Home Buying for Dummies, Raising Ferrets for Dummies, and Digital Photography for Dummies. The authors, they said, are geniuses.

Before this she was reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

What will they read their kids? Her husband suggested The Poky Little Puppy, by Janette Sebring Lowrey, which he grew up on; Grimm's fairy tales; and Aesop's fables.

His favorite book--The Stand, by Stephen King.

If she wrote a book what would it be about? An autobiography. She is the youngest child and her older brothers had hemophilia and contracted the AIDS virus. One died when she was ten, the other when she was twelve.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach -- July 18, 2007

Reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith.

One of her favorite books--The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky, for its grace and humanity. It made her read The Idiot and Crime and Punishment, also by Dostoevsky.

The "What novel would you write?" question inspired an "Oh goodness," but she did have an answer. She's a kindergarten teacher and would write about her children.

San Diego, CA -- Imperial Beach Public Library-- July 18, 2007

Check out the librarian's blog at ibreader.blogspot.com to see her recommended books.

On the left: Reading The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen. Her favorite book right now is Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer, a love story between a vampire and human (see family reunion post). She's read it at least three times.

On the right: Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper. Her favorite book right now, I am the Messenger, by Marcus Susack.

Why do they like to read? They both agreed because of its ability to get you into another world, to lose yourself.

Other books they like--The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis and It Happened to Nancy, by anonymous, which often leads the girl on the right to walking down the street reading--she can't put the series down.

What would their novels be about? The girl on the right didn't know but she did know what her friend's would be about. Come on, you know, she insisted, remember the essay you wrote? So her friend explained: her novel would be about a Weeping Willow tree with long drapey branches that you could sit under and hide away and the tree would protect.

She has a really impressive imagination, her friend told me.

Talking with these girls made me wish I had my own friends around me. They built each other up and helped each other think of answers.

Phoenix, AZ -- Greyhound Terminal --July 19, 2007

Reading Lo Que Dices, Recibes, by Don Gossett. His sister gave it to him to read on his return trip home to Yuma, Arizona from Abalene, Texas. The book has a "Secretish" theme--if you speak negatively, you will get negatives back, he explained.

He was so dedicated to the book that he was using drops in his eyes so he could keep reading. The air conditioning on the bus, as well as the lights are hard on his eyes.

His favorite book--The Bible, specifically Proverbs.

Flagstaff, AZ -- Amtrack Station --July 19, 2007

Arrive Flagstaff 12:30pm Thursday, July 19
Depart Flagstaff 3:00pm Thursday, July 19


Reading Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks. Her sister gave it to her to read while she's traveling--she's from Chicago and is visiting her brother who works at the Grand Canyon. Also in her bag is a book by Bill Bryson.

Her favorite book? The BFG, by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. (BFG sands for Big Friendly Giant.) She's a third grade teacher. Recently she read 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny, by Phillip Done, which she recommends even for people who aren't third grade teachers.

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon, AZ -- July 19 & 20, 2007

Arrive Grand Canyon 4:45pm, Thursday, July 19
Depart Grand Canyon 10:15am, Friday, July 19


I was excited to go to the Grand Canyon. So excited that, even after I had checked in and paid for my hostel in Flagstaff, I impulsively left, throwing all my unpacked belongings into my pack at 2:52pm, and running out the door for the 3pm shuttle left from the Amtrack station two blocks away. I had summit fever or, rather, canyon fever.

Why did I leave? By the time I'd unpacked, I'd seen virtually all of Flagstaff already--I'd made two mistakes in interpreting the hostel's address which I'd written in my notebook for ease. The first, I went to North San Francisco Street instead of South and the second, I went to the area code, 928, instead of the address, 19. I cannot explain my exasperation. The temperature was close to a hundred and I hadn't bothered to change out of my jeans and sweatshirt before departing the air conditioned world.

Although Flagstaff is an idyllic town (picture taken on my way back town after searching for the 900 block)



it was worth it!



On the South Rim of the Grand Canyon


Reading Immortality, by Milan Kundera....the whole time I was hiking. She said she's not a huge reader but her friend gave it to her before she left home for the Grand Canyon. The book is good so far, she said--it's about how your face is like a serial number for people, that it has nothing to do with your individuality, it's just random features put on you and that a character in the book imagines how you might feel if you never saw your face until the end of your life, how you might be disappointed, that maybe it wouldn't reflect how you want to be seen by the world.

Favorite books--Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger; The Life of Pie, by Yann Martel; and On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, which to her is about being the same person you are, regardless of where you go.

This is the second time On the Road has come up in so many days, both times by people on vacation. Coincidence?

What would her own novel be about? The future, she says, though she grimaced, amending her answer with, I don't know. I don't like Science Fiction.

Grand Canyon Bookstores

I got up early the next morning and, while other hikers were setting out to walk down the canyon, I walked back and forth along the rim near the lodgings, seeking out people reading. There were none. There were photographers, sunscreen appliers, shoe tiers, etc. There was a French couple with a map and guidebook stretched out over their legs, but they were unapproachable. The man had some sort of insect bite on his bicep and they were trying to squeeze something out of it.

I wandered into the Bright Angel Lodge gift shop looking for a good "guilt present" to send my coworkers back in San Francisco (didn't find one) and learned, by talking to the cashier, that the best sellers for children are coloring books and, believably, Who Pooped in the Park, by Gary D. Robson and Elijah Brady Clark. It's not about latrines but rather little critters who do like we do. Walking out of the gifts shop, on the rim of the Grand Canyon. In exiting the giftshop I overheard a ranger telling a group of children about fossils. It's really morbid, she told them. You have to die first. Let me demonstrate.... !!! I didn't stop to listen to the talk. Instead I wandered onwards to the historic Kobe Studio bookstore.

If I thought I was going to escape morbidity, I should have thought again. Their number one bestseller, by far is Over the Edge, Death in the Grand Canyon, by Michael G. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers. They print a new edition every six months! (The young woman who supplied this information is reading Sunk without a Sound, a story of a honeymoon couple who disappeared while rafting the river. Her favorite book--The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho.)

Other best sellers--Grand Canyon Women, lives shaped by landscape, by Betty Leavengood and The Man Who Walked Through Time, by Colin Fletcher, who made modern hiking popular when he published this book in the 1950s.

(I think this is the Kobe Studio bookstore is the building on the edge of the cliff.)

Flagstaff, AZ -- July 20, 2007

Arrive Flagstaff 12:00pm, Friday, July 20
Depart Flagstaff 3:10pm, Friday, July 20

Macy's Coffee Shop, Flagstaff, AZ

Not to be confused with the department store. Their logo shows a naked man--it's nothing indecent--wallowing in a steaming coffee cup as if he were soaking in a hot spring. Their menu of sandwiches, salads and soups includes vegan options and, for the coffee, growth hormone-free milk. I was able to have lunch, recharge my computer battery, take advantage of their complimentary wireless, and interview someone reading a book. I missed talking to a Noam Chomsky reader because I couldn't pull myself away from my computer, but here's someone reading

The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Recently he read a biography of Thomas Moore, who was Lord Chancellor to Henry the VIII. He's fascinated with this period of English history.

His favorite book--The Bible.

If he were to write his own book it would be a history of Greece, during the time of the Persian wars. He minored in history at Arizona State University.

Greyhound Terminal, Flagstaff, AZ

Reading Jambalaya, The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, by Luisah Teish. The most interesting part of the book so far--a chart of seven African Powers (I need to look this up). What interests her most is the cross-over between voodoo and her own religion, Wicken. She got the book in the Latin Quarter, where she lives in New Orleans.
She's headed to Vegas to visit her family.

She's also reading something she picked up browsing through the bookstore--Around the Way Girls 2, part of an Urban Book series, by Lajill Hunt, Kashamba Williams and Thomas Long.

The last book she put down without finishing it was Grisham's Time to Kill. She only lasted two pages.

Her favorite book of all time is The Coldest Winter Ever, which is about a fifteen year-old girl from the ghetto in Brooklyn.

Do she and her daughter read together? Yes! They like The Cat and the Hat, by Dr. Seuss.

Barnes and Nobles bookstore, Flagstaff, AZ

Reading Ironside, A Modern Faery's Tale, by Holly Black. It's edgy, she said, and good. It's the second book in a trilogy.

She likes reading Anne Rice and psychological books, like Diary of a Schizophrenic Girl and Girl Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen. Does she ever put a book down without finishing? Yes, though not recently. If the author doesn't create good imagery she doesn't want to read it.

If she were to write her own book, it'd be science fiction or fantasy.

Favorites--anything by Anne Rice and Witch Child, by Celia Rees, which is a diary of a girl who traveled from England to the U.S. during the Salem Witch Trials.

Something that has helped her through her life--a book called Color Psychology and Color Therapy, by Faber Birren, which helps you target your stress areas.

Barnes and Nobles Bookstore Information Desk, Flagstaff, AZ

What's selling? The Bestsellers, the New Arrivals, and everything on the Summer Reading tables, which are a combination of selections from Barnes and Nobles and books from local Flagstaff teachers from their reading lists, which include Hamlet, by Shakespeare; Native Son, by Richard Wright; Animal Farm, by George Orwell ; Farenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury.

Las Vegas, NV -- July 20, 2007

Arrive Las Vegas 9:00pm Friday, July 20
Depart Las Vegas 10:40pm Saturday, July 21


On Friday night, after a five hour bus ride from Flagstaff, I exited the over-airconditioned bus, stuffed my bag in a storage locker, changed into a sleeveless dress and running shoes, packed my camera, notebook, sweater and book--After Dark, by Haruki Murakami--into my purse and, after double checking my map--I didn't need a repeat of Flagstaff--set off to run the four miles to Barnes and Nobles for the already in progress Harry Potter release party. Why not walk? I feel safer when I run, and I was feeling anxious about missing the first part of the release party--it had started at seven and was already 9:30.

Stepping outside felt like being hit with a blast from an electric hand dryer. It was intense, in a good way--I had that, this is what it means to not be in San Francisco for the summer feeling. The time and temperature digital displays on the tops of a couple of hotels read 102 degrees. The bright lights from "the strip" glittered all around me and as my feet hit the ground, as I accelerated, finding my groove, breezing past people at bus stops, I felt like I was rolling through a clothes dryer full of sequined nightclub clothes. I ran down Maryland Parkway, away from the foot traffic on the strip, past chiropractic clinics and law offices advertising $300 divorces. I consulted my map, ripped out from my Lonely Planet guidebook and, when I realized I wasn't going to make it without drinking water, I stopped in at Denny's, half hoping to find someone reading a book, as that is how After Dark, the novel I was carrying with me, begins--with a girl reading in Denny's...in Tokyo, though, not Las Vegas. There were no readers. The man at the counter gave me a glass of water. And then I was back out in to the dryer. A couple miles later, I arrived at air conditioned Barnes and Nobles, only to get my camera case turned into a frog. I should have asked him to do something about my sweaty hair instead.


Later that night, I found another Denny's, where I planned to stay up all night reading, just like the character in After Dark--the book takes place over the course of a night, with the time typed at the top of every few pages--but, when I finally got to the Denny's it was freezing cold. In contrast to the ninety-something degree heat it felt as cold as Montana in the winter. I couldn't read there, so read outside instead, eating 7-11 hot dogs (my latest guilty pleasure) with a homeless man , who explained string theory to me. Finally, his friend came around and, against my will, they decided it was better that I read indoors. I was insistant that it was too cold inside to read, so they found me a lounge with a fireplace! The rule--always ask for what you want. It might be possible. It wasn't a fire place exactly and it was a good twenty degrees cooler than the delightful warmth outside, but it was as close to a fireplace as you can get on the strip in the summer--a tiny pool with a flame in the middle of it, surrounded by a little ring of comfy couches. It warm enough to read. And, as I kept turning the pages, the character moved from Denny's, and into bar. Ha! Still in Tokyo, though.

The next evening, after a day of stalking book readers, returning to the Greyhound station felt like coming home. Maybe it was that my belongings were in the storage locker (I could bond again with my sunscreen!), or if it was the cell phone charging station, or what, but, when I saw the logo of the gray dog striding out on the wall, I got that feeling you get when you've come home. And a good thing, too. For the next seven weeks, this station, and others like it *will* be home.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 20, 2007

Reading...well, I don't know what he's reading. He wouldn't show me.

Recently he's read The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, and Barack Obama's two books, Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope. He is in Las Vegas to help with the Obama campaign. He believes he's the only Democrat who has a chance. In response to my question about experience, he said that Obama has more experience than Kennedy and Lincoln had, and they were successful because of their fresh perspectives.

What would his book be about? This is not a hypothetical question. He has written a book--it's a fantasy novel and it took him a year to write. He does not have a publisher yet. If he were to write another book, it would be about his travels. He has hitchhiked through three continents--Europe, South America and this one.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 20, 2007

Reading Drop Dead Beautiful, by Jackie Collins.

Her favorite book of all time--A Woman of Substance, by Barbara Taylor Bradford. It's about a woman from Ireland who was put out by her family, beat all odds by herself and built a dynasty. She likes that it's about a woman beating the odds. She's read it four times, the first when it came out in 1979, when she was thirty-years-old, right after moving to California from Denver. She read the whole book in two-and-a-half days.

If she were to write her own book it would be about a woman raising her children and how the children's different roles affect their mother's life. All of her children went in different ways. One of her daughters has adopted six kids and has three biological children. Her son is in finance and her other daughter is in geriatric nursing, as a result of the care her own grandmother had received and the state of our health care system. She wants to make things better.

This daughter who is a nurse wrote a collection of poems and together, she and her mother, the reader in this photo, published it. It's called I Started to Say I Love You But Your Fists Got In the Way and other love poems. She did a number of book signings and talks at domestic violence programs and shelters.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 20, 2007

Reading The King of Torts, by John Grisham. Her favorite books—the Lord of the Rings series.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 20, 2007

Reading Contacting Your Spirit Guide, by Sylvia Browne. She has always liked her on TV and so she wanted to read the book, too. If she were to write a book it would be about interior design and decorating in Egyptian, Hindi, and Native American styles.

The perfect book? It depends on her mood.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 20, 2007

Her favorite book--The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. Her favorite Harry Potter book is The Order of the Phoenix because you can see that Harry is darker than he’s been before. She likes the darker side. It’s not, she said, a kid’s book. People die.

If she would write her own novel it’d be about growing up and all the different things she’s experienced, crazy things she’s done.


The friend on her left--Her favorite book is Pride and Predjudice. She also likes Jane Austen’s novel, Northanger Abbey.

She doesn’t like to read bestsellers. Instead, she’d rather read good stuff, like Terry Goodkind’s series. It’s sci fi, she says, but it’s not too ridiculous. He doesn’t copy Tolkien. He deals with moral issues, like free will and doing what’s right. She’s waiting for the next book in the series to come out . First she was waiting for Harry, now she’s waiting for the next Terry Goodkind.

She said it’s scary that Oprah has so much power over what people read.

In Highschool she liked Candide, the story of how a man was so dedicated to a woman he was away from and then when he finally sees her, she’s an old hag, but he still stays with her.

She loved the first chapter of The Invisible Man, but felt like it went downhill after that, that it’s just a downward spiral of depression.

She tried to read Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, but didn’t finish and came away wondering...did she just win the Pulizer because it was a hard book to read? Her college roommate (the woman in front of the maps in the previous post) from when she was going to college in Hawaii (she's from Guam) seconded that.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 21, 2007

She’s debating whether to get this book, 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married, by Linda and Charlie Bloom or Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff in love, by Kristine Carlson. The deciding factor will be if one has an audio version.

Her husband has read all of the Harry Potter books and recently, Eragon to their children. He uses the different voices. Their kids are now 11 and 13. They read for about an hour at night, until she gets after them to go to bed.

If she were to write her own novel it would be about family life and marriage.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 21, 2007

Reading Marvel: The Characters and Their Universe, by Michael Mallory.

Her favorite books--The Magic Tree house series, by Mary Pope Osborne. She likes how, in it, you can touch a picture and be there. She also likes the Magic School Bus series, where the school bus gets shrunk down and does a field trip through the human body or visits the dinosaurs or other places.

If she were to write her own book, it would be about her dogs, Quarter, who is a bad dog who likes to break stuff and sneak into the house and leave paw prints on everything, and Dingo, who is a good dog and even dances with her! She puts her hand out and he reaches out and gives her his paw.

A book that’s changed her life--The Bible. Her grandma (on the left) reads it to her. She likes the ark story.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 21, 2007

Reading the latest Harry Potter!

Her favorite book of all time--Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell. She likes it for its human characters, it's an examination of humanity. She read it for the first time when she was fifteen and has read it ten times again since then. It makes her feel comforted. It give sher hope about survival.

If she were to write her own novel? God no, was her first response, but revised her answer, saying it would be fiction and not very long.

Recently she read a biography of Robert Kennedy; a book called Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson, and Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris.

She is studying journalism in school and hopes to work for a print magazine like The Rolling Stones.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 21, 2007

Reading the latest Harry Potter!

His favorite book of all time--Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls. He likes it because it teaches kids that hard work pays off...he mowed a lot of lawns when he was growing up.

It's book six that got him into reading Harry Potter. The books, he said, keep getting better and better.

If he were to write his own book, it would be about how easy and difficult it is to get good friends. It’d be about his own experiences and how you may or may not tryst too much.

What has he read recently? It's sad, he said, but books one through six, spending about a week a piece on each one.

Las Vegas, NV -- Harry Potter Release -- July 21, 2007

Reading the latest Harry Potter and waiting for his ride after the release party. Recently he’s read Into the Wild, by John Krakauer and The Things they Carry, by Tim O’Brien.

Las Vegas, NV -- -- July 21, 2007

At Circus Circus hotel, waiting for the server to bring him a new cup of coffee--the old one had so much cream and sugar in it you could, and these are his words, float a horseshoe in it.

He's from Montana, just like me!


Reading Tragedy at Honda, by Charles Lockwood, which is about a fleet of destroyers which, in 1923, were on their way from San Francisco to San Diego for a celebration and were passing by Devil’s Jaws, where there are sharp jutting rocks ticking out from the shore, and the captain of the lead ship, thinking he was further down the coast than he was, turned into the rocks. They lost about sixty men. The tragedy choked him up whiel he was telling me about it—he was in the Navy between 1958 and 1968.

He’s also reading a book about the early days of Australia, during the time it was a penal colony of thieves. The author, he says, had an amazimg education, as the book was written in the style of the late 1700s, even though it’s a contemporary novel. You have to, he said, go over it a couple of times to understand when you first pick it up.

His favorite books? He usually reads Westerns, authors like Louis L’Amor, and enjoys learning about Western history.

His family has always encouraged him to write a book about his life, about his fly fishing and hunting--you wonldn’t have a deep freeze to put all the deer and antelope he’s shot, he said.

He is visiting with his wife, his daughter and his daughter’s friend who are involved in a competition by the International Poetry Society (not sure if this name is correct). Last night they got a trophy and a medallion and tonight there is an awards ceremony. They have a chance in winning a $10,000 or a $5000 cash award.

They refinanced their home and as result had the extra money to come. Go Citibank! (You can see their logo on his hat if you squint.)

Las Vegas, NV -- July 21, 2007

At Circus Circus Hotel. Visiting from Holand, waiting for their broken-down bus to get fixed and reading Geleende Tijd, by Harlan Coben.

Her favorite authors are Dan Brown, David Owen and Carry Slee, who writes about youth and problems, growing up and real life.

Las Vegas, NV -- July 21, 2007

Her favorite book of all time is The Davinci Code, by Dan Brown and Pelian Brief, by John Grisham.

Other favorites--T.D. Jakes, a black minister, who writes about things like giving instead of taking and receiving blessings if you do the right thing; and historical novels by Beverly Jenkins and Rochelle Alers.

She likes books that take you far, far way, where if you close your eyes you see what you would feel. She started reading when her grandson was having trouble with reading ten years ago. Now he is an honors student.

Her granddaughter, who swam to the near side of the pool to talk to us, likes the author, Holly Black (see Flagastaff posting), magazines and graphic novels.

Las Vegas, NV -- July 21, 2007

Reading Voice of the Heart, by Barbara Taylor Bradford. Her favorite books are mysteries, readers digest books. She’s visiting from Australia.

Las Vegas, NV -- Public Library -- July 20, 2007

I had the privilege of talking to a reference librarian for close to an hour. Thanks for your time! I hope you weren't too famished for your lunch.

Most popular books at the library, that he always has a list of holds for is put out by Triple Crown Publications—Gangsta by K'wan and Larceny, by Jason Poole. They're in a new genre, called "Urban" and there has been debate about how they should be shelved and categorized. Some people think they should be shelved separately. And, there's the question--what constitutes something as "urban"?

Their library is fortunate enough to be well funded. In 1991 a bond was passed where, for every $100,000 of property value of your home, you pay $20 in taxes for the library. It was the first thing he ever voted for and he, of course, voted yes. He’s been working for this district for five years.

The library has a large Spanish language section. The how-to books are popular. The other day someone came in for an air conditioning repair manual and wanted to buy it! (At 108 degrees that day I could understand!) How-to, he said, is more popular than, say, Ann Rice and Shakespeare.

Also talked to a brother and sister, high school students, whose favorite books are manga comics and a retired woman who, when she was in seventh grade, won an award for reading the most books of the girls in her class ...and took their pictures which, in retrospect, is not so good for preserving the sanctity of the library. To the librarian--sorry about that!

Las Vegas, NV -- July 21, 2007

Reading Devil in the Kitchen, by Marco Pierre White. Her son, who is in cooking school, recommended it. She hadn’t read in years.

When she was younger she used to like The Dragonlands books by (?). Now she likes books about real people. You go through phases, she said, about your reading.

Her son’s great Grandfather was president Eisenhower’s chef, though he didn’t go to the White House with him--he was more interested in opening a steakhouse.

Her own book would be about the Norse and Greek Gods—there’s some reality in everything, she said.

This is her second read through the book and she's looking forward to getting the author's other book--White Heat. Right now, she’s waiting for her son to arrive!

Salt Lake City, UT -- Temple Square -- July 22

Arrive Salt Lake City, UT 7:30am Sunday, July 22
(leave station after 2 hour nap in the sun, with pocket full of free bus tokens provided by driver trying to compensate me for oblivion of bus schedules and general knowledge of the area, and handicap of abbreviated Sunday bus schedules)
Depart Salt Lake City, UT 1:30am Monday, July 23

At Temple Square two men were sent from the security department to ask me to leave, saying that, though they could see this was not the case, they'd received a report that someone was panhandling. I had been approaching people and asking them to tell me about their favorite books for a voice recording I was making. My recorder is very small and hand held. Nothing obtrusive. What they found obtrusive was my approaching people.

It occurred to me that, if I had left my pack in a storage locker at the Greyhound station and worn a dress instead of my jeans, I would have been better received. Though I hadn't felt as though anyone was judging me for my appearance, the majority of the sisters at the square were dressed in long skirts and, though it was close to a hundred degrees, long sleeved shirts and some, even sweaters.

I explained to these men, who had been sent by security, what my project entailed and they concurred that it was inappropriate. I told them that, as I was on private property, I would leave and that I respected their decision, but asked if I could further explain myself. I told them how I am discovering through my experience that people find solace in the books they read, that people have favorite books they read eight to twenty times throughout their lives. Books guide us through difficult times and help us better understand ourselves and our place in this world. I explained that my project would be incomplete without a representation of religious books and that this was a place I felt I could achieve a representation of their religious books.

They appeared genuinely interested in my project and kindly thanked me for the business cards I offered, but still asked that I conduct my research outside of Temple Square.

In retrospect, I do find it ironic that a religion focused on proselytizing would be so quick to turn away someone whose main objective is this: to listen. Perhaps I'm not savvy--is an open area, with flowerbeds and comfortable benches, between a temple and a tabernacle, the wrong place to be asking someone to share with you what they derive from their religious books?

Below are a few books and what in them the readers have found important in their lives.

Alma 32:28. He doesn’t read much, though his father and brother do. He can’t sit still for long. His family listens to books on audio in the car. When his dad has his say, it's Lord of the Rings. His mother prefers Harry Potter.

*******

These Sisters told me that, since their 18 month mission had begun, about a year ago, they have had no time to read anything but religious books but that, when they listen to talks or look them up on the Internet (www.lds.org) , their religious leaders quote poets and writers like Emerson, sources outside of their faith. When their missions are completed they look forward to reading more again.

Here are their favorite passages:

2 Nephi 33:11-15

and 1 Nephi 13:37, below, which is a little fuzzy, so I've cut and pasted:

37 And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.

Salt Lake City, UT --Sam Weller's Books -- July 22, 2007

Reading The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz, by Russell Hoban, which she's writing a review on for Sam Weller's bookstore.

Her favorite book--The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, about a man’s treacherous soul, how he wants to stay young forever and makes a pact with the devil but inside he still becomes old and even though he himself doesn’t physically age, a picture of him ages, showing what’s going on inside of him. She’s read it three times, the first time when he was sixteen. People can be sinister, she said. It’s a book about reality. Her mother gave her the book to begin with so it’s a tie to her. It was the first thing that really got her interested in reading.

Right now she’s reading a book by Chuck Klosterman who wrote for Spin and writes humor.

She writes writes descriptions of the rare books and their condition for store and
online customers reviews. Many of them are history books. Reading them, she said, helps her build a fuller, more well-rounded base. In college she studied literature.

The bookstore itself:
At this large, rare, new, and used bookstore, Harry Potter is, of course, a big seller, as are Western Americana, LDS books and books of all topics. They have about 150,000 used and rare titles.

What else is popular? Stegner, Edward Abbey, a lot about Lewis and Clark, USGS maps, nice fiction. They sold a first edition of Fear and Loathing for $600, lots of rare Stephen King, including the Dark Tower series which was sold for $2100. They have a signed Elinor Roosevelt autobiography. They sold a fifth edition of the Book of Mormon for $22K.

People are always looking for a first edition book of Mormon, and also for Twain, Dickens and Shakespeare.

Salt Lake City, UT -- Downtown Public Library -- July 22

Check out the bike rack!

Salt Lake City, UT -- July 22, 2007

Reading Hinduism, A Cultural Perspective, by David R. Kinsley . She’s trying to find a correlation between idea of female diety and how females participate in socity and culture.

Her favorite book--The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho.

Recently she read The Dark Ages of America, by Morris Berman, which is about how our country is severely declining. It makes you sad, she said. She had to put it down a lot. It’s apocalyptic and it makes you feel like crap.

About three months ago she read , Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A TRUE STORY FROM HELL ON EARTH, by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrw Thomson, which Is about three U.N. Peackeeping missions. Reading this was a turning point for hier. It initiated a start of political awarness and a new path, along the lines of doing school to U.N. working on reform. There’s got to be a better way, she said.

Salt Lake City, UT -- July 22, 2007

Reading The Great Book of Amber, by Roger Zelazny.

His favorite book--Star’s My Destination, by Alfred Bester. He’s read it twice. It’s about a guy and a guy’s search of truth, but he’s more or less stupid....you think he's stupid while you're reading it, but when you think back over it later you can can relate to a degree.

He’s read a lot of Heinlein.

If he were to write his own book it would be about getting caught up in a parallel universe.

Salt Lake City, UT --Anarchist Collective, Boing -- July 22, 2007

Reading Harry Potter.

If she were to write her own book… She’s working on a ‘zine about converting your car to run on vegetable oil, which she’s done for herself already. She gets oil from around town, mostly Asian restaurants because the oil is cleanest there.

She’s grown out of these, but used to really like Daniel Quinn books like My Ishmael. She learned new perspectives of the world, about agriculture, religion and history.

She likes Derek Jensen, his older books about culture. They’re hard to read, she said, because they are depressing. In Listening to the Land he compares the mother culture to a sickness and relates it to his sexual abuse as a child.

Salt Lake City, UT -- July 22, 2007

The scariest books she’s ever read are The Shining and The Stand, by Stephen King that her mother got for her. Her favorite book of all time is Eaters of the Dead, by Michael Crichton. It’s the true story about Viking day-to-day life. She’s read it five times. Other books by Crichton? They’re okay.

Salt Lake City, UT -- July 22, 2007

She’s got to read it now. If she doesn’t, it’ll be ruined. In the sixth book, Dumbledore died and people made t-shirts that said that and the book was ruined for her. She doesn’t want that to happen again so, even though her Potter history is as follows, she’s plunging ahead:

1st one-read
2nd & 3rd - skipped
4th-listened to on tape
5th-watched the movie
6th- skipped

She’s been reading since she was three years old, beginning with the Little Monster series by Mercer Mayer. Every week her dad would bring her home a new book.

When she was eight she read her first Stephen King book--Misery. Her mom had been reading it to her but it was taking too long so she just took the book from her mother. Stephen King is her mother’s favorite author.

Her Dad likes Tom Wolfe books, like The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and also One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey. He also likes nonfiction.

Her favorite book—She can’t decide. She likes Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk; The Dark Half, by Stephen King; American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.

She loves reading—there’s something about being able to escape in a more imaginative way. Any book will give a different perspective. She likes Lord of the Flies because of how the characters progress.

What would her book be about? It’d be a journey, showing resilience. It would begin with a tragedy that would need to be overcome and, though it wouldn’t necessarily be overcome. It would end at a point where there would be choices.

She is a librarian at the Salt Lake City Public Library and is also, coincidentally, a member of the anarchist collective, Boing, where I was at earlier in the day.

What she likes about Salt Lake City is the incredible community (and she knows about community--she's from Brooklyn), for instance, Boing, a bicycle collective, and groups that put gallery and fashion strolls. The music scene, she says, is tight.

Thank you for the apples!

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

Arrive Nampa, ID 9:30am Monday, July 23
Depart Nampa, ID 8:30am Tuesday, July 24


Coming into town--fields, then car lots, then the bus station.

Everything was so big.

Who are you doing this for? people would ask and didn’t quite understand that I was doing this for myself. But, they were really nice. The guy at the taco truck offered me a drink for free. A woman at a Mexican restaurant drew me a map. People talked to me, told me their favorite recipes. It was really enjoyable.

There was a little stream that flowed through town, with ducks quacking in it.


I poked my head into places, looking for readers and also tried a trick that my dad had taught me through his time in Search and Rescue--it's easier to find clues than it is to find the target. So, I asked people where I might find readers. At the Hong Kong restaurant they told me six people were reading there on Saturday and told me to try at Honker’s, where the waitress told me that there are two people that read at lunch time and to come back later and that they saw someone reading at McDonalds the day before. A pizza place told me that they have people reading in the afternoon, but not the evening.

And, though this time I did get to a convalescent home (in Salt Lake I arrived after 8:30pm, which was too late), I found myself at to one that specializes in caring for people with memory loss. Reading a book, the nurse explained, would be too much.

I thought a lot about my dad’s hunting, translating "think like an elk" into "think like a reader." It's a philosophy that rewards the thinker with scoring naps in the sun. You go somewhere and wait it out. Coffee shop? Park bench? Let the reader come to you. But, it turned out, I was too restless.

This was the first big small town I had visited. I had that same feeling I had in L.A., that feeling I had when I went to Moscow for the first time after spending a day in tight, compact Korea. The United States is built for giants.

A real small town would be easy. Condensed, small, you sit at a table in the local café all day, take breaks to go check out the park and then move to a bar stool in the saloon at night. (If anyone knows of towns like these, please email...)

Nampa, ID -- Public Library -- July 23, 2007

At the children’s desk, they provided me with directions around town and the names of popular children’s authors and books: Lemony Snicket or Daniel Handler (A Series of Unfortunate Events); Judy Blume; Juney B. Jones (The Magic Tree House series); Nancy Drew; Curious George; Dr. Seuss.

The adult librarian was out for lunch.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

In front of the Nampa Public Library.

Reading Eyes of Eagles, by William W. Johnstone, which he’s read eight times. It takes place ten years before the Civil War and he likes learning and relearning the history.

His sister in the backseat is reading Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. She loves the Hardy Boys, but dislikes Nancy Drew. She would love to be a detective.

His brother named Where’s Waldo as a favorite and I thought of that all day as I walked around town, searching for readers, poking my head into Chinese restaurants, cafes, doctor’s offices and swimming pools (not into the actual water).

His mother read to them when they were young and took them to story time at the library. You have to start young, she said. She’s not a fan of Harry Potter. In fact, as her children recalled, she’s even thrown the book into the fireplace. They are Christians and reading Harry Potter goes against their beliefs. Her favorite book is The Bible.


I

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

A hobby bookstore worker.

Currently he’s reading a book about the San Francisco earthquake and how it was the true end of the wild west.

They’ve been selling and buying the classics, including 1984 and Animal Farm, by George Orwell for summer reading lists. And, lots of mysteries, things people read on vacation.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

At the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho.

When I asked to see the library I was greeted by looks of surprise. What? they asked, Why? But you’re thin! I insisted anyway and, when I got there the door was locked and there was a sign reading, Weight Watchers. Ah ha! Unfortunately, the library is now just a meeting room. There weren’t enough volunteers to take care of the books so they were boxed up. The books included Spanish titles and Spanish and South American authors, as well as Danielle Steele and children’s books like Bob the Builder.

The last book she read was Two Little Girls in Blue, by Mary Higgins Clark.

Her favorite book as a child was Farmer’s of the Midwest. It was written in 1901. She got an A on her book report about it.

If she were to write her own book, it’d be a memoir about her life. She used to live in Helena, Montana where I grew up!

Nampa, ID --At the Swimming Pool -- July 23, 2007

No one reading here.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

At the reception desk of a Chiropractic Clinic (I'm not having back problems, just thought I should check to see if someone was reading in there....checked at the espresso shack and at the snow cone shack, too. but to no avail.)

This is the first person I’ve met who has finished the new Harry Potter. How did she do it? Her husband took care of the kids and she read from 8 a.m. on Saturday until 2:30 in the morning on Sunday then, again on Sunday from about 2 p.m. until 10 p.m.

Her favorite book--The Princess Bride.

If she were to write a book, it’d be poetry or song lyrics. She is musical as well—she plays the violin and sings.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

At Papa John’s.

Reading Weavers of War. It’s the fifth book in a series. He reads so he can relax. This book is filled with lots of action and intrigue.

His favorite book of all time? Probably The Magician’s Apprentice, by Rayman E. Feist. He’s read it twice.

If he were to write his own book it’d be fiction—probably fantasy, like J.R.R. Tolkien.

What turns him off when he reads? Too many names and places. He doesn’t want to think too hard. If it gets too complicated too fast, he stops.

He’s from Portland and is traveling for work—he works with lasers on gun sights. They don’t have a Papa John’s back in Portland so he’s bringing several burritos home with him. I did my good deed of the day and told him to go to the Mission District and San Francisco and get a burrito there. If I accomplish nothing more on this trip, my 54 days will still have been worthwhile. I recommend a super burrito from just about anywhere on Mission Street.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

At the LDS and Boyscout Supply Store, holding up the books of a popular local author, Sharon Lewis Koho. She went to school with this woman’s husband!

They told me how, in the whole Harry Potter enthusiasm, how the Home Section of the Nampa Press Tribune published six recipes that Muggles put together, including butter brew, meat pie, a Sunday chicken dinner, and a cockroach concoction with chocolate chips and pretzels.

A popular LDS author—Gearld Lund. Other popular authors include Betsy Brannan Greene, who writes women’s mysteries and has recipies in the back of her books, like strawberry jello with whipped cream and pretzels and butter pressed into the bottom of the bowl; Anita Stansfield.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

At Dairy Queen, reading Lucas, by Kevin Brooks, which she’s enjoying because it’s written in the voice of a girl her age, like a friend, even though the author is a man.

She like all sorts of books, including Ann Rice novels, classics for school like Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men, as well as young adult stuff and Ben Michaelson. Her favorite Ann Rice novel is The Vampire Lestat.

What would her own book be about? She started writing one in the fifth grade. It was about an Indian chief and a princess.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

On Exercise Bike at the Recreation Center.

Reading The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman.

Her favorite books--The Lord of the Rings series and Jane Eyre.

Recently she’s read Plain Secrets, a nonfiction book about the Amish; True Notebooks, by Mark Salzman, about how he volunteered at a writing class; and, from when she was young, The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

Next to the pool at the Recreation Center.

Reading the latest Harry Potter. She’s finishing it up in the book version. She listened to it all on audio, so that she could do the dishes and make dinner at the same time. But, because there were distractions of her family going in and out, she’s reading the end while her child (children?) swim.

She has also enjoyed the Eragon books on audio.

Her favorite books of all time—the Harry Potter books. Before this, she’s never been so excited for a book to come out.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

Reading The Taking, by Dean Koontz. She likes mysteries.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

Reading The Bible and studying the Godhead.

He could care less about Harry Potter. It’s okay for kids because it’s fiction, but he rethought, kids take fiction to heart and it gives the false idea of, well, it represents Satan’s teachings, not directly, but leads one to believe a lot of hogwash that kids act on in one way or another.

When he was in High School he used to read science fiction. He was a real fan of Jules Verne, Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clark. It was his passion.

What would his own book be about? His own life and how he used to have no interest in God but how now... he would tell about the time when he woke up and realized the truth.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

His favorite book--The Bible, specifically John 4:5.

Another book he has at home is by Dr. Dobson, who is “muy conocido mundial”. He has programs on the radio.

What would his own book be about? How to educate children. He has nine-year-old twins and a five-year-old.

Nampa, ID -- July 23, 2007

At the Flying M.

They got married a week ago. He’s originally from Alaska and a Kinesiology professor at NSU. She graduated with a degree in Art and Design. This is the first book she’s read in a while. Recently he’s read 1776, by David McCullough; a book about John Adams, and The Americanization of Benjiman Franklin, by Gordon S. Wood.

The Flying M was a little cafe that could be right out of my neighborhood in San Francisco. They said there used to be one in Boise that they would go to to hang out, because there wasn’t anything like it in Nampa, but then the people who owned it in Boise opened one in Nampa, too!

The Dalles, OR -- July 24 and 25, 2007

The Dalles is the end of the Oregon trail and my one and only stop in Oregon. I didn't make it to Powell's in Portland, but I did make it to Paul Klindt's bookstore, known for being the oldest bookstore in Oregon as well as, and this is from my own experience, the most hospitable and helpful.

(Mount Adams in the background. Mount Hood dominates another horizon.)

Like any small town, The Dalles, with a population of about 13,000, has no public transportation commute involving reading books at bus stops and in train stations. I had to look hard for readers. I did find a few and I'm sure there were many more sitting in recliners beneath reading lamps or tucked into bed with bedtime stories, but in the evening when the heat had abated I made a slow perimeter around town I saw things that, I think, define the character of the town. It's good to be out of San Francisco seeing different ways people enjoy the quality of life:

a woman lacquering a child-sized picnic table
a mother and her children jumping together on a trampoline
an elderly woman coiling a garden hose
groups of young men in baseball caps playing folf in a park above the city
couples of young women in sporty clothes speed walking
a babysitter discussing with her charges whether they should count to 50 or 30 before hiding
a couple of teenage girls playing cards on a blanket
a man leaned against his garden wall talking on his cell phone
young boys trying to flip their skateboards over curbs and land with the wheels right side up
a circle of teenagers playing hacky sack

and two little girls who wanted to tell me the names of every single pet, person and living creature within a half-mile radius, including, but not limited to, the dead bugs from their bug houses...all this despite the fact that the neighbors dogs (whose names I forgot) were barking at me the whole time.


Off in this industrial part of town, Google has a five building complex for data processing. It's good to have new blood in this town, Mr. Klindt said.

The Dalles, OR -- July 24, 2007

Reading a booklet of information about evolution that his friend put together from printouts on the Internet. The readings describe the flaws in the theory of natural selection. He is a religious scientist. Nothing, he said, has ever gone from one state of complexity to a greater state of complexity by random chance or any other means. Even Darwin, he said, discredited it.

He recommends Black Elk Speaks, which is a history of Native Americans by a white man. Chief Black Elk’s son interpreted for the writer.

His favorite book--The Bible and the message from it-- Jesus said, above all things, to love God and to love one another.

If he were to write his own book, it would be about his travels. He used to be in the Marine’s Special Forces before he suffered an injury that his left him virtually paralyzed. The doctors said he’d never walk, but he’s had the fortitude to prove them wrong.

The friend (who put together the book, pictured below) recommends World Without Cancer, by G. Edward Griffin, published by Eden Press. It’s about the politics and science of cancer and is a little on the radical side. If he were to write his own book it would be called Killings of the Vortex, about the drug scene in Portland. He recently moved back to The Dalles to take care of his octogenarian parents.

The Dalles, OR --July 24, 2007

Waiting for her husband and reading the latest Harry Potter. When he arrived they invited me inside the bar to have a drink and some nachos with them. Her husband's mother lives with them and they like to have some free time together after work before heading home.

In her family they have three copies of book 7: Separate copies for her dad, her twelve-year-old granddaughter and herself. They tried to share, but it wasn't going to work. The granddaughter feels like she has to read it before school starts so she is in the loop.

They went to Klindt’s book store for the midnight release party and won a jar of marshmallows for guessing the correct number in them. There were two or three hundred of them. There were also competitions with jars of eyeballs or m&ms.

Other things she’s read recently—Janet Evanovitch’s Lean Mean Thirteen and The Edge Chronicles, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.


She and her husband have lived in The Dalles since 1991. She volunteers with the SMART program—Start Making A Reader Today, where she reads with kindergarteners through third graders. They like Clifford the Big Red Dog. Her husband’s favorite kid’s book is Skippyjon Jones, by Judy Schachner, which is about a Siamese cat who wants to be a chiuaua.

She also likes reading travel books, like Nomadic Woman (not sure who the author is) about a divorced woman in her 40’s who decided to travel. And, a book on how to pack. It was odd, though, she said, that this woman seemed to always be staying with well-to-do families, never to be with normal people.

One of her husband’s favorite books is Desert Solitaire, written by a ranger about Arches National Monument and how tourists don’t like to get out of their cars. And, he’s a Steinbeck fan--Travels with Charley and The Log from the Sea of Cortez. He also reads Outside magazine.

They told me about local authors and suggested I got to Klindt’s bookstore.

The Dalles, OR -- July 24, 2007

On Road above the town.

Not worried about falling. Reading Sanasion, a book put together by her church. Her favorite authors—Carlos Cuauhtemoc Sanchez, who wrote Juventud en Extasis and Anthony de Mello.

The Dalles, OR -- July 25, 2007

From left to right: Jesse, Carol, and Paul Klindt in front of the oldest bookstore in Oregon and, as is the opinion of poeple in the town, one of the best loved. Mr. Klindt has owned it since 1981. His family has been in The Dalles since his great grandparents came to homestead in 1859.

They sell a lot of local and Northwest history, have a mystery section, a small poetry section, they keep new hardback that everyone has and though you can get the books cheaper on Amazon and at Walmart, a lot of people still buy from him. They try to keep a wide range of books on hand, even thought hey are a small store.

Also popular are books on gardening, self-help, biographies, and lots of kids books like the Harry Potter books and Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials. Young girls like stories about fairies and the book called Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. Then there’s sci-fi and manga. Knitting books, he said, are popular again and books about Native Americans.

Local Walla Walla author, Patrick Carman, who self published a series of books called The Land of Elyan, attracted about 200 parents and children to his store for a reading. The books are about a little girl who finds a passage to another world in the library and wears a necklace so that she can talk to animals.

Another local writer from The Dalles is Monica Garcia who just graduated from college. She wrote a book called Hate Mail. It describes uncomfortable situations young women run into and, if you can relate, there are cards enclosed and you write the letter on the card and seal it up as a way to get rid of your negative feelings. Cards for one-night-stands, dirty old men, etc.

A children's picture book by another local author—Rebecca Ann MacKay and her book Little Pirate and his Pirate Hat, dedicated to her own little buccaneer.

Mr. Klindt's own favorite books--War and Peace and Brothers Karamazov. He has a PhD in Russian and he and his wife used to teach at the University of Texas and take students over—perhaps about 12 times in over thirty years. He recommends to people the Spanish novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It’s about a little boy who is taken to a repository of lost books and is allowed to pick out one book. He reads it and wants to read everything by the author, but, throughout history (the book takes you from the Spanish Civil War to contemporary times), something happens each time he gets near a book, like an earthquake. It’s a unique format, he said.

For lighter reading, he recommends the mysteries by Peter Tremayne, who has created a heroine, Sister Fidelma and sets the stories in Ireland during the era when it was experiencing a flowering and people from all over, as far as Egypt and Ethiopia were coming there. From the 5th or 6th Century until the Vikings came and conquered in the 10th and 11th century it was a free, open space for education.

An author who has used the idyllic The Dales in his writing—Craig Lesley who teaches at a community college in Portland. His book Winter Kill won the Western Book Award. His book River Song is set partly in The Dalles.

The Dalles, OR --The Public Library -- July 25, 2007

The librarians and staff of The Dalles library. Their favorite books from right to left—Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen; Marley and Me, by John Grogan...on second thought, change that to books by Janet Evanovitch!; books by Chuck Palahniuk and, of course Harry Potter; and The Cat Who mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Kiwanis donate a sum of money and provide volunteers to help with the Summer Reading Program.

Their library went through a period of crisis in 2006. The county, who had partially funded the library declared its intentions to “get out of the library business.” As a result, a new district was created with a few libraries in the area. In May of 2006 funding the library district was offered to voters, and, although it passed with more than 50%, because voter turn out was so low, the vote was discredited—you have to have voter turn out of over 50% for anything to do with taxes. However, last November, in the general election, which more than 50% of voters turned out for, the measure passed and, though they still do not have the money, they have been able to borrow against future taxes to get things going again. The community came through for them, affirming that they value their library. A lot of the staff has worked there for at least seventeen years and even during the grim times, kept the programming going.

The librairie is a beautiful building, built in the 1960s and has been embellished by carvings by local artist Jeff Stewart and the paintings and bookshelves by Spencer Corey, who did them as his final Eagle Scout project.

Also by Spencer Corey.

I love fireplaces. I want to cook things in my crockpot again and sit by a fireplace and read, but really, right now, I just want to be on the road. I’m happy doing what I’m doing.

The Dalles, OR -- July 25, 2007

Reading March, by Geraldine Brooks, which is about the father who leaves in Little Women. She usually goes into the library during her lunch hour but is reading in her car today because she was worried she might fall asleep! Next up in her list is Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.

Reading this has taught her about the Civil War and made her realize the issues of slavery and just how injust it was. Recently she watched Red Badge of Courage, which was written by Stephen Crane, and parallels this book. She’s in a Civil War phase.

Her favorite book--James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl, a young adult innocent fantasy book. She always remembers it even though she hasn’t read it in years. She thinks about the peach as it’s floating.

If she were to write her own novel it would be set in Europe. She studied abroad in Italy when she was in college and this is one of the reasons she picked up Eat, Pray, Love, because it’s set partially in Italy. She likes to read books set in places she has traveled or would like to travel.

Seattle, WA -- July 25 & 26, 2007

Seattle was cold. At least in the beginning of the day. After putting my bag in storage at the hotel I had to go back for my hat, scarf, gloves and jacket. I rolled down my jeans. I felt like I was back in San Francisco…though people have been saying the weather there has been beautiful.

I stayed at the Moore Hotel. It was pure luck that I got a cheap room just a few blocks from the Greyhound station. I'd called the city hotel hotline and was told the best they could do was $300 for a room in a neighboring city.

I have a confession to make. In the coffee capital of our country, I drank this: decaf from a Folger's tea bag. It was an accident. I don't know how it happened. I was at Turf, a dive where they expect you to pay before you eat and there are (rusty) perfume dispensers in the bathroom. I didn't understand how they worked and got a squirt in the eye.

Ever since I'd arrived in Seattle I was famished. At Turf I ate a steak and then had to order a cheeseburger, too. The night before, at twelve-thirty a.m. after checking into the hotel I'd had to wrestle with a cook at a Jamaican reggae bar to convince him to cook me something. We settled on curried goat. (The next day, I stopped a married couple from arguing about the two giant bags of frozen goat meat the husband had bought in Lake City. The wife was hitting him over the head with her purse. I interrupted and told them it wasn't bad.)

The beauty of Seattle wasn't in its coffee, or even in its food, it was this: Everyone had a book in their hand. The only difficulty was trying to decide who I should talk to.

In leaving Seattle, the bus was sold out. I squeezed in on standby, but this taught me something--get a ticket immediately after getting into town. Also, it's a good idea to have something that I can put in the lineup of bags (other than my bag with my laptop) at the departure door to reserve my spot. Greyhound passengers don't stand in line. They leave their bags in line, sometimes three hours or more before departure because, even among the ticketed passengers, there is no guarantee you'll get a seat and it’s those who are first in line who do. Greyhound is not always gracious enough to call out an extra bus and driver.

Seattle, WA -- July 25, 2007

Reading Bag of Bones, by Stephen King. His favorite book of all time--Band of Brothers, by Stephen Ambrose. After reading it he appreciates soldiers more--how they had to cope with being short handed, not having enough ammunition, and that they volunteered to do it to protect our stupid selves. He has one friend who is in the war right now who drives a tank, but hasn’t kept up with him very well because of the time difference.

He's a writer himself and is reading this book for the second time to learn how Stephen King does it. He’s tried writing horror, realistic fiction, fantasy. He reads Tolkien and Jordan to see what doesn’t work.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As you will notice, it’s a library book! (notable in that, within the Seattle Public Libraries the wait list is over 1,000.) Her friend checked it out and loaned it to her when she’d finished. Harry Potter is pretty much all she ever reads.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading Christ the Lord, by Anne Rice. She’s one of the few female authors he likes. Male authors he likes? Grisham. He’s read all of his books.

His favorite book of all time--Bewitching Hour, by Anne Rice, for how realistic it is.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading A Game of Thrones, which his girlfriend loaned to him. He and his girlfriend have different tastes, but they share their books and talk about them. He loaned her Don Quixote because her books involve swordplay and nights, and she’s into medieval settings, and Don Quixote has a satirical take on this setting. Recently he’s been reading the classics--Ulysses, by James Joyce; War and Peace, by Tolstoy; and Montaigne.

His favorite authors of all time, right now anyway—Don DeLillo and Thomas Pinchon.

If he were to write his own novel he’d take old stories by the Greeks and Hebrews and give them a new look, like the story of Penelope or one of the Old Testament women.

He was saying that his neighbor, who has a two-and-a-half year old and a five-month-old has remarked that it’s wonderful he has made time to read. But he says of course he does, that books are part of being human, that it’s telling stories that set us apart from other animals.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading 1968, by Mark Kurlansky. She has studied this time frame as a hobby for herself. What has she learned from this book? At the same time civil rights and anti war movements were going on in the United States, there were uprisings in Czechoslovakia and Poland. It was a dynamic year. Lots of change happened all over the world. Everyone everywhere grows up. The movements weren’t necessarily unified, either. There isn’t a steady theory for why this year was so dynamic—it could have been because MLK was shot, or that lots of things were televised. People were learning how to utilize television and the global community was being developed.

Recently she read Tortilla Flat, by Steinbeck and The Sun Also Rises, by Hemingway and an Environmental Science textbook. She’s doing an AA and hopes to work for a non profit, maybe an environmental agency.

Her favorite book, that she’s read a lot--Happiness, by Will Ferguson. It’s a weird fiction book, she said, but his morals are pretty profound, even though they’re simple.

She writes poetry, which is often inspired by reading. Books make her think of things in her own life.

A book that has changed her life—When she read Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond, by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, she learned different perspectives about the way her parents thought about things and could appreciate that.

Seattle, WA -- Seattle Public Library -- July 26, 2007

This library is amazing, worthy of wedding receptions and car commercials, it was rebuilt in May 2004.

From the mission statement on the library's home page:
Our mission is to become the best public library in the world by being so tuned in to the people we serve and so supportive of each other's efforts that we are able to provide highly responsive service.

What makes it so good? Software donated by microsofft, public spaces, internet services, programming, book groups, and fun things like LDS displays by George LeGrady, professor of interactive media at UC Santa Barbara, that show what books have been checked out so far that day, with a one-hour delay to protect people's privacy. The screen becomes busier and busier as the day wears on. See the picture below.

The decor is very trendy looking, which at first gave me a cold feeling--it wasn't the warm, cozy library at The Dalles, but, if you are trying to attract people to the library, maybe it's a good thing to be hip. The "living room" has carpeting that resembles closeups of grass blades and other plants. Then, there's the fourth floor, which houses meeting rooms, that elicited the response of a four-year old who just got off the elevator. “I can’t believe it...It’s so red I can’t tell where I’m going.” The entire floor gives a feeling of walking through a stream of wet red paint. One of the librarians described it as "vibrant."

In the kids department: Local author Erin Hunter (a pseudonym) is catching on. She has a series called Warrior and it’s about cats. Also popular: Junie B. Jones, The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne, Yu-Gi-Oh, Choose Your Own Adventure (which was just reprinted), Charlie Bone (because of Harry Potter), the Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan, and books by Anna West (an author who works in the building who writes mysteries.)

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading Modern Methods of Organic Synthesis, by William Carruthers and Lain Coldham. He’s a chemist and is reading this for fun. He also likes reading about archaeology and ancient history, especially about the Hittites.

His favorite book of all time--The Illiad.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading The Scrolls of the Ancients, by Robert Newcomb. He also likes science fiction and fantasy, like the Sword of Truth and the Firekeeper series by Terry Goodkind.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading The End of Days, by Zecharia Sitchin, which he just bought yesterday.

He likes reading about history and recently read something about George Washington. He believes in searching for the truth through history instead of relying on secondhand information.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes. She can relate to it because she’s done remodeling herself--the book describes remodeling a villa in Tuscany.

Her favorite book of all time--Holy the Firm, which she’s read a number of times. It makes her appreciative of naturalist things, spirituality, inspires meditation, helps her give pause, reconnect to herself in a certain way.

Recently she’s been reading murder mysteries, like James Patterson’s.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts, by Regena Thomashauer. It’s about how following your pleasures helps your life to unfurl how you want it to. She’s read it several times and gives it as a gift a lot. She reads it when she’s stuck in order to get unstuck. She’s an artist and does drawing and collage.

Another good book--The Shamanic Way of the Bee: Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters, by Simon Buxton.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading Darcy and Elizabeth, Days and Nights at Pemberley, by Linda Berdoll-- chewing gum she calls it.

Her favorite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, for its formality and tenderness. It’s like, she described, the author, when she writes, is vigilantly watching a child sleeping with satisfied smile.

Recently she read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, The Lost Boys of Sudan,by Mark Bixler, and a book called Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire, by Rafe Esquith. She’s a school principal.

She likes Madeline L’Engle for her ability to show relationships between people.

Every book, she says, has given her the power to succeed. That’s why she reads. Reading is all about giving joy.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading the latest Harry Potter. Recently she read Mary Taylor Bradford’s Little Girls in Blue. She and her best friend share all of their books. The last one her friend gave her was by Eric Jerome Dickey, called Genevieve, about a wife and a husband with marital problems.

What’s up to read next: Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

At the Elliott Bay Book Company, an independent bookstore established in 1973, I was too late to hear the poet Steven Nightingale, but I did get to learn about the store--they have a selection of books that they sell for 20%, of which they donate a portion of the profits to a different cause each month. Next month it will be literacy and what they raise will be matched. Books are selected for either their relationship to the cause or because they're popular.

I also had the opportunity to talk to one of the booksellers about his favorite books--Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms and All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren.


All the King's Men won the Pulitzer prize in 1947. It’s a fictionalized version of the life of a truly great man who became a corrupt senator. He thinks it’s the best American novel and it’s distinctively southern.

Recently he’s read Harry Potter, out of obligation. He needs to, working at the bookstore. Mostly, though, he reads southern literature. He’s 2500 miles away from home so he feels like he needs to.

A book that was a turning point in his life-- End of Alice, by A.M. Homes. The book made him realize how far books can go. It’s about a nineteen year-old girl who falls in love with a twelve year old boy. She begins writing to a pedophile in prison for advice and in turn he writes about a thirteen year old girl who he murders. He read this book when he was eighteen and he still hasn’t bounced back from it. It was so wrong on so many levels. He hasn’t read anything before that so blatantly overstepped boundaries, taking leaps and bounds over them. It’s a rough book.

He grew up in the south outside of Memphis. He’s the first person in his family who's moved more than 100 miles away.

Seattle, WA -- July 26, 2007

Reading The Places Between, by Rory Stewart. It's the story of a man who walks across Afghanistan right after the fall of the Taliban.

Butte, MT -- Evel Knievel Days -- July 27, 2007

My mom and brother picked me up in Butte, Montana, sparing me a four-hour layover, and brought me back to neighboring Helena, but not until after we'd had a chance to join in the festivities for Butte's local hero, Evel Knievel.


I scanned the hillside, where families were sitting on the grass watching the motorcycle stunts, but did not see even one Harry Potter book.

However, while we were having lunch, watching kids crawling in and out of a tank that the National Guard had brought for recruiting, I spied a book sitting on the edge of a tank and ran down to see who the owner was.


Turns out it was a Reader's Digest Anthology and the owner (who was inside of the tank) had gotten it for free at a book stand a few blocks down the road, as part of the festivities. His friend's favorite book--Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie.

Butte, MT -- KOA Campground -- July 27, 2007

My mom and brother were impressed with my book spotting skills. It's a paperback in his hand, I explained and my mom pulled the car into the KOA parking lot.

I forget how lucky I am to be traveling alone, that I can stop and talk as often as I like. Though, my mom and brother were very patient, even though we were late getting to my grandparents' house for dinner.


He’s from Virginia, flew to Helena, got himself a bike and has ridden up to Glacier National Park and down to Yellowstone. Usually in the summer he's cutting trees in Virginia. Now, he’s traveling around selling jewelry, like the necklace he's wearing, made with a sterling silver fork wrapped around a piece of smoky amethyst.

What else he brought along to read--Razor’s Edge, which he swapped out for Catcher in the Rye, then wished he hadn't. Holden, he said, is a winey brat and he cant’ believe he saved it all this time to read it. It’s crap.

The shining star in Razor's Edge is this quote he copied out:


Tips for packing light: bring a hammock to sleep in and, when that fails, a good place to go is the back of a U-Haul truck—they rarely lock them.

Helena, MT -- July 27 & 28, 2007

In Helena, where if I where if I were blogging about bunnies or deer, or even something as specific as "fawns with white spots without their mothers running down even numbered streets" I would have better luck than with readers. Helena is large, spread out, tranquil and, while walking from my grandparents house back home after dinner at 8pm on Friday night, we didn't see a single person for a mile. Here's a deer munching on the apricots from my mom's trees.

At home I did laundry, shocked the next morning that it dried on the clothesline overnight, as I'm used to foggy San Francisco and using the dryers at the laundromat. Am also trying to pairing things down and think smart about what kind of clothes I'll want to be wearing. It's the same kind of thinking I did before heading into the Haut Pyrenees, the high part of the Pyrenees mountain range that runs the length of the French/Spanish border:

Get rid of the jeans and leather purse with the broken zipper, I won’t need them where it’s hot and muggy. Replace with skirt or culottes and lightweight bag that will hold laptop so that I can carry it around when I put my bag in storage. Send back extra contact lenses—I only need one pair. Consolidate vitamins into one bottle. Do not take with me clothes my mother offers me.

I also tried, without much progress to map out the route so that I can find out if this journey of 48 states is possible. It makes me feel good when people say, “Oh, you’ve only just begun!” It’s like, when I’d be hiking down the trail in France and people would say things like “bon soir” instead of “bonjour” and I’d get worried, rethinking whether I'd have time to make it to a camping site. But, I am still in the "bonjour" portion of my journey. I may not make it to all 48 states but I have plenty of time left to soak up as much as I can.

Helena, MT -- July 28, 2007

Reading One-Handed Catch, by M.J. Auch , which is about a little boy who loses his hand in a meat grinder and still tries to play baseball, like ball player Pete Gray. He’s going to write a 750 word essay about the book, bringing Lou Gehrig and his battles into it as well. If he wins the essay contest he gets to throw out the first pitch at the Pioneer league baseball game at the end of August. If he doesn't win, he still gets two free tickets to the game. Good luck!

His favorite books areEragon and Eldest. He read Eragon, which is about 900 pages, in two days. (His mother is making him read One-Handed Catch more slowly--they only read it together....right now she's sitting next to him while they wait for the start of the Stampede Parade.) He’s waiting for the third book to come out and, in anticipation wrote the author a letter. The author, Christopher Paolini, wrote him a personal response and clued him in on sort of what will unfold in the third book. Christopher Paolini is from Montana and had self published Eragon and toured around Montana with it until it was picked up by a national distributor. He was a home school kid.

Helena, MT -- Lewis and Clark County Public Library -- July 28, 2007

At the Lewis and Clark Library, where I racked up fines with my Trixie Belden mysteries, Christopher Pike books and young adult romance novels. Since I was a kid, the library has gotten a face-lift--a beautiful mezanine and reading room funded by Stephen Ambrose. And, something else new--they now have a young adult librarian.

What's big at the library? Reading groups. The library has several of them, with topics ranging from Mystery to Montana, for teens and for adults.

Elaine (right) loves We the Living, Ayn Rand's first novel. It's about a Russian woman during the Revolution of Oct 1917. She gave her life to be free. Also, anything by the Brontë sisters.

Diana (right) is currently reading Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, which she soaked with the sprinkler and will have to pay for now. She loves books by Louise Erdrich, who is part American Indian, part German. She grew up in North Dakota on the reservation . A good book by her is The Last Report At Little No Horse. She proposes wildly believable things, like a woman posing as a priest and the old Indian chiefs knowing but not turning her in.

Helena, MT -- July 28, 2007

Richard Van Nice of Richard Van Nice Books, the Book God of Lyndale Avenue.

If you and your friends ever form a book group, he told me in parting, off in the hills and need a Book God. I’ll be there for you.

My Aunt Ginger, the most avid reader in the family, had recently turned in 700 books for credit to Mr. Van Nice’s book store and, when I mentioned that I had just finished my book (After Darkby Haruki Murakami), she and my Uncle Greg took me over.

There are two books that got him into the business--Parnassas on Wheels and the sequel, The Haunted Bishop, by Christopher Morley. They chronicle an older gentleman in New England going from town to town and farm to farm with a big wagon full of books giving talks on philosophical discourse to make his meal and his bed and breakfast. In the sequel he and a spinster woman set up a physical bookshop and he continues with his philosophical meanderings and becomes involved in a plot that involves German spies.

He does a lot of trade in romance, especially Nora Roberts and, over the past three years, does trade in supernatural romance, novels with vampires and witches. Also, Western paperbacks like Zane Grey, William Johnstone and Louis L’Amour—that kind of thing. He also does steady sales on regional history.

A women’s book group recently came in for copies of Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi, to understand women in the Middle East.

“You’re either doing well with swapping or building a wall,” he told one customer.

His readers are 60/40 women/men. About twenty-three years ago, about the time he opened up shop at his current location, he saw a drop off of kids reading….with the exception of Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket, and now, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys thanks to the movies. Once they get hooked, he said, they read. They’re either die-hard or turned off completely.

Once a mother and daughter came into the shop. The mother was asking the daughter why she didn’t read more classics and her gum popping daughter picked up The Scarlet Letter. What’s it about? she asked and Mr. Van Nice responded—Cheer leaders. The mother gave him a quizzical look and Mr. Van Nice shrugged. Give me an A, he said. He was also planning on telling her that Lady Chatterley’s Lover was a gardening book but thought better of it.

He’s about two years behind finding room in his store for his books. He likes acquiring more than he likes selling and has a box on his front porch of free books that he would hate to see go without a home, like kittens and puppies. He has someone come by for the books for a farmstead library they’re setting up near Raidersberg, Montana and someone else who comes every three or four weeks to get books for the state penitentiary.

What makes a book a free book? If there’s water damage or a missing cover or if he has multiple copies of it already. The only thing he tries to discourage in his trade-ins is the Reader’s Digest Condensed and encyclopedia sets, and magazines.

He’s a big reader of catastrophe fiction and is currently reading The Rift by Walter J. Williams, which is about an 8.9 earthquake in the southeastern United States. He had studied earth science, concentrating in vulcanology and seismology. He’s also worked as a commercial photographer. He’s lead, he said, a checkered life.

What he likes most about his book shop is the wide range of interests his customers have. At 8am someone’ll come in looking for contemporary romance; at 9am for medical; at 10:30 for mystery; at 11am for art books. It changes all the time. He’s self-described as “low-key renaissance.”

Sam Weller of Sam Weller's bookstore in Salt Lake City (see my SLC post) once came for a visit and gave him advice about putting over-sized books on top to save space and to raise his prices!

The cowboy reading in the background—he had bought out a store in the shopping center and renamed it “Packer’s Roost”. This is his friend’s rendition of an old guy reading in a roost. You can only repair gear for so long.

His store is backed-up against the outfield of the baseball field and is, as Mr. Van Nice put it, the ugliest building in town—bright yellow with purple trim. It's both shop and home. He’s got all he needs—bed, tub, microwave, Swanson’s dinners to nuke and a microwave to nuke them in, TV/VCR/DVD player. It’s all he needs. He’s the old bachelor uncle and his nieces and nephews check up on him every now and then.

Below--a good DVD to check out.

Helena, MT -- July 28, 2007

Taking a break from writing up the minutes for the San Francisco Symphony and reading The Frightened Wife, by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Helena, MT -- July 28, 2007

At a coffee shop in downtown Helena, with his Bible, check out the personalized cover!, which he was reading, he said, before I'd arrived.

Helena, MT -- July 28, 2007

Reading The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova.

What he’s read recently--Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Luis Zafon. It’s the bestselling novel in Spain since Don Quixote.

His favorite book of all time--Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. It’s more of a guy book, he said. Holden is a guy who all guys can relate to, at some point in his life. He’s a great tragic hero and it’s very well written. It’s set in the North East where he was born. He’s read it three or four times and he imagines he’ll read it every couple of years for the rest of his life. How does it make him feel? It makes him reflect on life easier. It just clarifies. He becomes more aware of people and relationships around him, what they mean and were they will go. It makes him introspective.

If he were to write his own book it would be in the horror genre. He believes he could never write anything as profound as Catcher in the Rye. The Stand, by Stephen King, is his second favorite book. He’d write something in this vein. He’s not a LOR guy. He likes what’s believable, but where anything can happen—violence, sex, what’s apocalyptic.

He's actually from L.A. and is in town to act with the Montana Shakespeare Company!

Helena, MT -- July 28, 2007

I spotted this reader walking down the street, not actually reading but, it appeared she was just in intermission.

She started reading the Harry Potter series two weeks ago and has already read books one through six. Not all of them are as thick as the last one, she pointed out; they get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Before she got interested in Harry Potter it was Cornelia Funke who writes fantasy books like Inkspell and Dragon Rider and Andrew Clements who writes stories about kids in schools and stuff they do, like changing the word for “pen” or going on strike by getting bad grades. What do these books teach her? Nothing! She just reads for fun.

If she were to write her own book it would be based on something that happened, like the wars they had with the kindergarteners and the primary grades (1-5) when the teachers let them out for recess at the same time. Some of the older students went to fight with the kindergarteners so it’d be fair. Her role in the wars? She was one of the wanderers. She didn’t fight. She was waiting for it to end. It was impossible, she said, to get to the battlefield and kids kept coming back muddy or soaked.

She’s participating in the Get A Clue contest at the library. You get to advance to a next level each time you read for 8 hours. There are three levels and you get a carousel token when you read for twenty-four hours. Between from January 1 until March 1 she read 4500 pages in 98 books, far surpassing the goal. Her mother stopped keeping count.

But, she's not a complete book worm. Today she went swimming and swam the entire length of the pool without stopping. The lifeguard was impressed.

She’s here visiting from Missoula, MT, two hours away from Helena.

Helena, MT -- July 29, 2007

Goodbye to Helena, with its nearly ghost town quietness, where people read books at home and (not so much) at cafes.


Back on the road, passing through beautiful country

Gillette, WY -- July 30, 2007

Most bus stations aren't this comfortable. When we got off the bus at 4:15am in Gillette, Wyoming, about twelve hours since I'd departed Helena, we all thought we were seeing a mirage. Even though this was the end of the line for me, I slept until 8am, then learned Powder River, the bus line that operates through this area instead of Greyhound, wouldn't honor my Discovery Pass, contrary to what I had been told when I bought the pass. Arrrrr.

The bus depot is several miles from town and, despite our Discovery Pass debate, they called a taxi for me....maybe more just to get me out of the station.


After explaining to the taxi driver what I was looking for--bookstore, library not too far, coffee shops, people reading, this is where she dropped me off. Had the taxi driver been unkind? No. She just assumed I wanted to go to the Hastings store. There is no independent bookstore.

The day got progressively better, starting with breakfast at Perkins where I discovered free wireless, the library, the existence of an actual downtown and a conversation with the 1997 Wyoming Teacher of the Year who was reading Harry Potter.

Though, it was a day that I would have had better luck blogging about Help Wanted signs. As my taxi driver told me, Gillette is a boom town, the energy capital of the United States and it’s always been booming, but since it got into the methane, it’s booming even more and there isn’t enough places for people to live yet and the service industry jobs are going unfilled.

Gillette, WY --Campbell County Library -- July 30, 2007

In the Administrative Office:

What they're excited about? One book, one community, which took place in May 2007. The book? Death Without Company, by local author, Craig Johnson, who joined the community with discussions on the book. He also wrote Cold Dish, about a revenge killing. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

To get the community started, the library passed out two hundred books to local businesses like newspapers, contractors places, a bank…. Wright, a small town in the county, was given 25 books and they purchased 25 more to give away. 80 people showed up there for the author visit.

In September they’ll be doing a statewide Wyoming one book. The title? My Antonia, by Willa Cather.

Another famous Wyoming author—C.J. Box, who’s been getting terrific national play. His character is a game warden and he writes murder mysteries with family interaction.

Their favorite books?
(left)C.S. Lewis and books about raising kids
(right) Nancy Drew when she was a kid and now, everything by Janet Evanovitch because they’re so perky.

At the circulation desk:

They have a “Favorite Authors club”. You can check off your favorite authors and when they have a new book out you are automatically added to the wait list. On the Harry Potter list, there are only 14 people left. They’d ordered 24 copies. Lean Mean 13 has 30 holds left, though they’ve had that already for a month. Do people ever ask for books based on what’s going on in their lives? Yes, about disease.

Gillette, WY -- July 30, 2007

Reading the latest Harry Potter. He is the third one in his family to get it. His eighteen-year-old son was first, finishing it in just one day, followed by his wife.

Recently he read Death Without Company, by Craig Johnson and Empire Falls, by Richard Russo. He reads everything by Adyashanti, a spiritual teacher based out of the Bay Area, who studied fifteen years under a Zen teacher who then decided he needed to go out and teach, too.

He and his wife always share their books. His wife is about half-way through Death Without Company right now.

He is a High School English teacher and he has "book talks" with his students, talking with them about the books they’ve read. They like Ellen Hopkins, author of Crank. Her books are popular with teens now. One student said it made her see her mom in new light. He says kids are always telling him, after reading a book, how it made them see things differently and what it made them think about.

For young adults he recommends Chris Crutcher, a popular Y.A. author. It’s entertaining from a plot standpoint and situations are thoughtful. The author ran an alternative school and was a family therapist. He pegs adolescent situations in a thoughtful way and he has a great sense of humor; he does rich, complex characters and introduces themes like sexuality, morality and familily and relationship issues.

He also told me about S.L. Rottman, a young adult writer who writes for junior high and early high school who asks the question, why write? Because so many ideas are exploding inside she would go insane.

Somewhere between Gillette, WY and Denver -- July 31, 2007

Vonnegut lives on, in hearts, minds, and on the walls of bus terminal bathrooms. Not sure where I was when I took this. It was sometime between 1:30a.m. and 4a.m.

I think the woman in the stall next to me, who kindly came to my rescue with a wad of toilet paper, was wondering why my flash was going off....

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Arrived in Denver around five-thirty in the morning and, despite landmarks like this one, it took me a few hours to come to terms that I was in Denver and not Seattle--maybe I should have explored more of the surrounding area, but the Starbucks culture and lovely cleanliness of the downtowns, ...and readers everywhere had me fooled. I'd ask someone--so, what do you like about Seattle and they'd say, How did you know I lived there? This may be a sign that I'm moving through the country too quickly.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick M. Lencioni. The first sign of dysfunction is absense of trust.

Right now he’s also reading Naked, by David Sedaris, which is a memoir, and a book about Roberto Clemente, a baseball player, though he’s not deep into it yet. Clemente was the most famous Puerto Rican baseball player who perished while transporting humanitarian goods to Nicaragua after the earthquake in the early 70s.

A memorable book? The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. He's an architect, and the story conveys attitudes and qualities he respects and personally seeks (at times) to structure the manner in which he conducts himself, yet it presents an individual he would never want to be.

What’s great about Denver? It’s a young city and is becoming progressive. Cow town, he said, is being challenged.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading Warcraft Archive, by Richard Knaack, Christie Golden, Jeff Grubb, and Chris Metzen. She's played the game and this book, which tells the plot, will help her better appreciate the game.

She likes to read about different religions, including Norse Paganism. A good book on the subject--Essential Asatru: Walking the Path of Norse Paganism, byDiana Paxton. She herself is a Norse Pagan.

Don’t limit yourself in religion, she said. All roads lead to the same place.

A book that’s taught her something that’s helped her succeed--it was something for work called Crucial Conversations, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. The book is about conflict management. People don’t just do things to be crabby, she said, and you have to figure out what they say they want in the first place. You have to get out of the Me me me, which is how we’re groomed as children.

What’s cool about Denver? There are a lot of haunted houses. She recommends The Ghosts of Denver: Capital Hill, by Phil Goldstien. It’s a city with lots of skeletons in the closets and people who died unfortunate deaths.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading Valis, by Philip K. Dick. It's about a guy in 1974 who gets a bunch of information fired into his head which he thinks is from God and he goes crazy, but it’s actually his future self.

Why is he reading this book? He’d been wanting to read this author for a long time.

Hs favorite book? The Trial, by Kafka. He read it in the original German. It’s about a world in which things happen for no reason. He wakes to find out he’s been arrested and tries to figure out what he’s being charged with and is executed. How did this make him feel? Depressed.

He read it in the original German (after studying German for 7 years). He’s read translations of Kafka before and says they’re not the same. There are certain phrases and words. If he could understand Russian he’d read Dostoevsky.

His second favorite book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig. It's sort of a philosophy book. The message behind the book is that there are many ways of thinking about the world and none of them are necessarily wrong.

Something cool about Denver?
Ethel’s House of Soul at 26th and Welton--a soul food restaurant.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading The Depression Book, by Cheri Huber (Author), June Shiver (Illustrator) . She works in a bookstore and has been reading books by Cheri Huber for a long time. It’s about how Zen philosophy can improve your life and how you can use anything from your life, even depression for spiritual growth.

Also on her nightstand--Dracula, by Bram Stoker, for the first time (she got it for her birthday from a friend) and books about Chaos Magic and Chinese Magic. For Chaos Magic: check out Liber Kaos by Peter Carroll and Visual Magick by Jan Fries. For Chinese Magic: Magick, Shamanism and Taoism, by Richard Herne.

Her favorite book--Neuromancer, by William Gibson. How does it make her feel? Excited, because it’s an exciting story, it moves you emotionally

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. Recently he finished the latest Harry Potter. He’s in summer vacation from Law School. When he has time he reads spy novels, legal thrillers by Baldacci.

He tried to read Oliver Wendell Holmes, but is putting it off for another couple of years until he’s no longer wiped out from Law School.

His favorite book: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter Thompson. He loves it--started out as a dream, throw all caution to the wind and live a crazy life, but can day dream. He read it for the first time ten years ago and has read it three or four times since then. On the Road is another favorite. How do these books make him feel? If he were to read them again right now—old. How did they make him feel at the time—it’s hard to explain. He showed the movie Fear and Loathing to his students when he was teaching in China, invited some of them over to his apartment—freshmen and sophomores in college—and they didn’t know what to make of it. In their minds, he thought, maybe Eragon would be closer to reality.

Another good book--Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang which he read 7 or 8 years ago. It makes war more real. He hadn’t ever seen evil in reality quite that vividly before. The author later committed suicide, perhaps related to researching her own family.

If he were to write his own book it’d be a spy thriller. Though, on second thought, he said he’d be more likely to writing American Colonial History. His wife, he said, is the writer. She wants to write a thriller, though he compares her work more to that of Amy Tan, not for the Chinese connection, but for the style.

Denver, CO -- Tattered Cover Bookstore, Colfax -- July 31, 2007

I had the pleasure of speaking with the manager of Tattered Cover, at their new location in a converted community theater. The theater has since moved to a performing arts complex downtown.

The theater building was spared the wrecking ball when a great developer came through. Two other tenants—a restaurant called Encore is coming soon and a movie theater called Neighborhood Flix, which will show independent films and have couches and a menu. Currently in the same complex is the independent record store—Twist and Shout.

What's selling at the store:
A Thousand Splendid Sons, by Khaled Hosseini; Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert; The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls ; and The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart.

In general—nature, ecology titles, photos of historic Denver, books by local author Sandra Dallas, Charlene Porter, who wrote Boldfaced Lies, and Phil Goodstein, who is a people’s historian and also leads tours around Denver, and talks about how the common man has been impacted by history.

They have a lot of readings at the store. A couple or three every week. One that packed the house—Michael Ondaatje and his book, Divisadero.

His favorite book of all time—Makes Me Want to Holler by Nathan McCall. More modern day bio of Malcolm X --the author is now in his mid 40s and the book is about growing up African American in Virginia. In the book the author tells about the crimes he commits, but tells about it with an engaging honesty. He was in jail by the time he was 20, was a journalist and is now a professor at Emory in Georgia. Fifteen years ago the book came out.

He literally threw the book across the room when he was reading. Nothing has ever compelled him to do something like this. He reads it about once every five years. Can’t see reading a book that will be better, though he can see things going on the at same list.

Right now he’s reading an advance copy (a perk of working at a bookstore) of Them, by the same author, which comes out in November.

--
Throughout my day, walking through Denver, people constantly asked me if I had been to The Tattered Cover and were always very pleased when I said that I had. In the words of the docent at the public library--they're an institution.

Denver, CO -- Denver Public Library -- July 31, 2007

I asked the docent what makes their library unique and was told to go up to the Western History and Genealogy floor.

When I got off the elevator I was greeted with photographs of wool-clad men in formation, doing kick turns and the herringbone on cross country skis. It brought back memories of learning to do that myself on McDonald Pass, just west of Helena, Montana. Strangely, and maybe this is a testament to their skill, no one was on the ground! The photography display is of the 1943-1944 training of the 10th Mountain Division near Denver. Denver is having the last big reunion of mountain men this week. The library houses the papers from manuals, reports, photos---they trained in Colorado.

Thumbing through the Sanborn Fire Atlases is a librarian who loves his job. He uses these atlases to help the community understand the history of Denver. Pink—brick. Yellow—wood. Blue—usually stone. X—stable or barn. D—dwelling.

Scholars from all over the area come to do research in the Western History collection. The Denver Library is unique in that they have archives. The other big Western History collections are at Yale and the Berkeley Bancroft library. In the 1930s, forward thinking librarians started the collection. What cost $1.50 back then now goes for thousands.

But it's not just scholars that use the collection. Every day he talks to home buyers looking at their new neighborhood history, gaining a respect for Denver's old buildings, and enthusiastic fourth graders studying Colorado history.

The reading room was designed by architect Michael Graves, a Princeton architect and the wooden structure in the background, built from hundred year-old Douglass fir from the largest sawmill in Washington, made with wood and pegs, is a symbol of the west, encompassing, and he asks the fourth graders to think hard about these: fire tower, windmill, oil derek, wagon wheel.

Right now he’s reading Middle March, by George Elliott. It’s amazing, he says. Such a picture of life. He also likes to read Philip Roth.

The history department also had an exhibit about Rodolfo Corky Gonzales, a leader in the Chicano movement in the 1960s, who wrote a book of poems about the struggles of Chicanos. He was a boxer. His book of poetry is called I am Joaquin.

Western history is not just the cowboys and Indians. People come to learn about things that relate directly to themselves--this is a theme that I see repeatedly when I talk to people about books. You're more likely to pick something up and invest eight hours in it if it has a personal connection.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading the latest Harry Potter.

One of her favorite pass times is attending the Pen and Podium Series. She has read a lot of their participating authors, people who write well like Alexander McCall Smith, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Anzar Nafisi, and Amy Tan. Some come, she said, to talk about style others come to talk about their lives.

We talked about sister relationships. I told her about the one in Haruki Murakami's After Dark, where the whole book is about a young woman understanding her sister, and she told me about Riding the Bus with My Sister, by Rachel Simon, who describes her relationship with her developmentally disabled sister.

Some of the best books she’s read--The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon (she likes everything by him), the unabridged version of The Stand, by Stephen King, which is several hundred pages longer than the original version that had been edited, and The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, who she heard speak at the Pen and Podium series.

She herself writes short stories and is working on a poem for her sister in memory of her nephew who died.

What she likes about Denver? She moved from the East and loves the weather and also how forward thinking Denver, though not necessarily the whole of Colorado, is so forward thinking.
What’s helped the city, she said, is Coors Field, which revitalized the downtown.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading Star Trek Voyager Pathway 5, by Jeri Taylor. He also likes Stephen King.

I wish we could have talked longer, but someone else (see next entry) was demanding attention. There were several men sitting in a row in front of the Samaritan House and it was difficult negotiating who to talk to. Everyone was friendly, they volunteered to refill my water bottle (it was hot), but I felt like I was walking a fine line in overstaying my welcome.

Denver, CO -- Buddhist Temple -- July 31, 2007

I got a tour of the temple, but no one was reading. Here's a few books in a display case in the lobby. I love that they have Buddhism for Dummy's.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

He hadn’t read a book until he was thirty-years-old when he was working at St. Anthony’s hog farm in Petaluma and the nights were so boring he picked up a book by John Jakes. In three months he’d read the whole library, which, he said, wasn’t that big, but still… He’d read a four or five-hundred page book in three days.

He went to Bible college for two or three months. He has a brother in law in Florida who reads the bible while he drives and, when he was visiting, he said, give me that and read to him instead.

I hadn’t even mentioned the other Denver reader’s love of The Stand, but he said his was, too. The unabridged version as well. He likes books by Robert Jordan and Louis L’Amour.
He read The Green Mile, by Stephen King recently and gave it to a hospital.

He recommends the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, which is about the end of days. Woah man, he said with force, it actually shows what’s going to happen.

This book by J.D. Hardin—there's been a gun fight and it's just starting to get interesting. He’s on chapter 3. It’s adult rated, but he hasn’t gotten to any good parts yet. Not much blood either so far. Only two people have been shot.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading The Young Men of Paris, by Stephen Longstreet. It's about the artist, Amedeo Modigliani, who was a contemporary of Picasso. There are pieces of Modigliani's in the Denver art museum right now.

He is an artist himself and is working on a mural for Rio Grande, a restaurant in the LoDo (Lower Downtwon) neighborhood and also another one in Pueblo, a city in CO.

His favorite book--The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. It makes him feel inspired; he gets a general optimistic feeling from it.

What is his artwork about? The nature of humanity, how we feel as people, little things everyone does everyday, that makes us seem more noble and alive, just simply being is a great thing.

He has just finished the 7th Harry Potter and Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown.

What he likes about Denver? The art scene. It’s a great mix of culture. You don’t need to go to a certain coast. Names to watch? Chuck Parsons, the sculptor and Louis Fenera, a painter.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading Remember Texas, by Eve Gaddy. Her favorite book of all time--Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. She likes it for the family unity and has read it ten times.

She reads constantly and gets her books from her mother. When she’s done with them she donates them to a senior center.

She loves Denver for its versatility—there’s good things to do outside in all seasons.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading , by Anne Lamott, or rather, reading parts of it to see if she wants to spend the $25.

What she’s reading now: Understanding the Taro, by

Favorites--To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, which made her think about how difficult our justice system is. She loved The Secret Life of Bees; she’s read 3 or 4 of Sue Monk Kidd’s books. It portrays, she said, the real humanity of simple people and teaches acceptance and diversity of ethnicity and religion.

Her own book would be a autobiography about her eclectic, creative mother, who was creative in a time when creativity was suppressed. She was a butterfly type of a woman with six children. She wasn’t always a stay at home mother. She went out to clubs—bridge, creating hats, charities for children. She liked to give parties. She is her mother’s daughter and her other three sisters are like her, too. She works in spirituality and has been counseling people about dream interpretation, having them interpret them themselves.

For spirituality she recommends The Dream Workbook (not sure who the author is, she said it was a man and I can only find a woman author) and Campbell’s books on mythology.

She grew up in Denver, and has just returned after living in Seattle for 25 years. She has also been an elementary and secondary teacher and taught college theology.

How has Denver changed? It’s huge now. It used to be a lot like Portland but now it’s larger, more ethically diverse. Her sisters live here.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, a book he hadn’t intended on getting. He’d ordered it from a bookstore and the wrong book came in. It’s about nuclear war and he read it many years ago. What he’d wanted was a book of the same title about a disease wiping out most of the world. It has the same title, but now he can’t remember the author.

He gets his books from Capital Hill Books, a used bookstore. Also in his bag: Companions of the Night, by Vivian Vande Velde and You Bet Your Planet, by Martin Greenberg, about futuristic game shows, and Tracker, a sci fi novel by Ron Stillman.

He reads for a distraction, to give his mind a vacation, to get his mind off of work. He works as a cook (and doesn’t own a computer or have an email address!!)

His favorite book of all time--The Lions of Al-Rassan,by Guy Gavriel Kaywhich, which is a love story (though he usually doesn’t like love stories), similar to middle ages in Spain and is about war, slavery, and a love triangle. He’s read it three times, the first time seven or eight years ago. He borrowed it from a friend he was living with and, when his friend got married and kicked him out he had to buy his own copy. He likes the strength of the characters and tough choices they make that are for life or death. It makes his own choices seem small.

His own book? It’d be a cook book, because he’s a chef. Or, no. A fantasy book, sort of like the Shannara series by Terry Brooks, with conflicts between good and evil or the transition from Boy to Man. He likes these sort of books.

Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007

Reading an advanced copy of The Fortress of Glass, by David Drake.

The most profound book he’s read--Death Comes to the Arch Bishop, by Willa Cather, which is about the Jesuits coming to CO, NM, NE in the 1600s and 1700s. It gives perspective and insight. It changed him, let him know it doesn’t matter what group you belong to, that there’s awesome people in each group. It taught him to question his prejudices.

Another good book--Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, which has about 100 different ideas in it.

He once wrote a book for his kids, who were eight and nine at the time. It was written from the perspective of a boisterous, capable storyteller on a stage. The story comes from there. The idea was mankind messing with power of group consciousness. The are two groups and one group gives up their place on earth for their kids, giving them the caves of the Earth—an expansive cave system in the Rockies. There's not much of the Earth that remains. The other group gives up a strip of land—maybe near the Cal coast--for their kids. The parents die. The rest of the planet is destroyed. Later, the groups of kids, who nothing about each other, meet through dream travel. His kids loved it.

The book he’s currently reading is an advance uncorrected proof from April 2006. You read it and then go on line and make whatever corrections you might offer. There’s some wizardry in the book. It’s about a catlike people who raise people like we here on Earth raise cattle and the main character has a mind inside his mind, a sort of genetic defect. The mind is that of a general in the military and so he sees everything with a military perspective.

What he likes about Denver—the downtown area has free music on Saturday and Sunday near the library, the whole mall has free buses, sometimes three in a row when it's busy--lots of cool things. The downtown area has the hottest sales in homes in Colorado, the 80202 zip code. The mall is becoming a community because of this.

Kansas City -- August 1, 2007

The lockers at the Greyhound Station were either all filled up or didn’t work and the package express counter, where they store bags as a last resort, wouldn’t take mine without a claim check on it. The line to the ticket counter to get a claim check was twenty deep, I decided to carry my pack.

Across the street from the bus station I passed an old man surrounded by shopping bags, standing in the shade of a tree. He had bandages on his face who was brushing his teeth. I nodded his direction and after he spit out his toothpaste, he asked me if I was looking for the library. How he knew that I was -- the library is always my frist destination -- I could only guess. Maybe, with my pack I looked homeless and like I needed a good public place to do my washing up. Go down the street, he explained and spit again before continuing, until it dead ends and then take a right.

I did pass a homeless center on the way down, so that canceled out the "library as a homeless shelter" idea. I think I looked presentable. I might have looked tired. All night long I'd been sitting next to a crying child who, during the course of the night, wet his bus seat. I tried to comfort him. His mother was across the aisle with an infant. It wasn't until almost morning that I discovered, irate at his aloofness, that the boy's father was also sitting on the bus, ignoring everything.

After visiting the library I went to the Main and 10th Street bus stop, where I could catch a bus from the Missouri side to the Kansas side of the city (thereby accomplishing two states in one city!!). A middle-aged black man -- Fred -- a man with guardian angel qualities, took care of me. He was there all day in my coming and going. First time we met he told me what bus to take to the Kansas side and then later, when I returned to the Missouri side, what streets it was safe to walk between...and when to hustle over to Walgreens before they closed. If you get on line, thanks Fred!

People told me no today: A Black woman and a Hispanic woman. The more different people are from you, racially, or how you dress, or how you talk, the more likely they’ll say no. But, then again, white women my age tell me no all the time, too, and my guardian angel couldn't have been less like me.

At the terminal: No one reading on the way out, but I did see a Harry Potter tucked in the handle of someone’s suitcase. Everyone was watching TV--a sword fighting drama.

“You’re half way through!” one of the ladies at the Kansas City, Kansas library said to me, pointing out that early in the morning I must have passed by Lebanon, Kansas, the geographic center of the continental United States.

Kansas City, MO -- Public Library -- August 1, 2007

The Missouri side library is housed in a remodeled bank. Very glamorous, in a way that is a hundred and eighty degrees from Seattle's fancy library. Missouri is historic. Seattle is modern.

In the basement, they show movies in the vault. Just last night they did John Wayne night.

The librarian in front of the vault doors, his favorite book of all time--The Child Garden; his favorite movie--Raising Arizona.

Kansas City, MO --Kansas City Public Library, MO -- August 1, 2007

A mom and her teenaged son visiting the library, playing chess on the roof patio. He likes to read Tom Clancy and is currently reading The Count of Monte-Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, for the second time as summer reading. She likes historical fiction and is reading Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God.

Kansas City, MO -- August 1, 2007

Reading Girls in the Game, by Nikki Turner. She told me the entire plot line so far, (about 35 pages), while a guy was trying to get her cell number, and I got totally lost. Here's what I got-- it’s a story of a girl named __- and a dude named Little Man, a hustler from West Virginia and they’re going to have a baby.

She likes reading black authors and Tom Clancy. Her favorite book is called G-Spot by Noria ___. She also likes Candy Nigger and Bublicious and Throngs of Fire by the same author. I'm having problems finding the author online--if you anyone knows, please clue me in so I can fill in the blanks. I found a Noria Jablonski, but I don't think that's right.

Kansas City, KS -- August 1, 2007

Reading How to Study the Bible, by Kay Arthur. He is studying to become a deacon at his Baptist Missionary church. The first step in studying, he said, is the begin with prayer, then to put what you’ve read in context.

Kansas City, KS --Public Library -- August 1, 2007

In their new children's space that is so new they haven't even moved the books in yet. They are one of the few libraries who are still funded jointly with the school district. They have been able to save enough money that they could revamp their children’s area, which is where this picture is. It’s so new they haven’t even moved the books in. In the back part of the children’s area they will have computers to play games on. A library, they said, is a place for community.

Why the new children's addition? Within the last few years they’ve had to reopen four elementary schools in the area. They have an influx in the population—African American, Hispanic, Croatian, Bosnian, Vietnamese, Laotian, Hmong, and French speakers from Somalia. They’ve been growing their foreign language books, especially the Spanish and French language collections.

Windsor county, they explained, where KSK (apparently this is the local way to say it)is located, is going through a Renaissance. The area is being revitalized by the new NASCAR racetrack, which will bring an influx of people spending money to the area.

Carol (on the right): Who went to library school in Austin, TX, likes to read Mercedes Lackey, a fantasy author, and Sherilyn Kenyon, who writes a trashy vampire romance series. It’s different from Anne Rice, she said. Anne Rice is literary and atmospheric. Kenyon is nitty- gritty dirty with action. She also likes crafts books.

Barbara (on the left): Reads an eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction. She especially likes Richard Russo and Elinor Lipman.

When I got to the library and told the librarian at the information desk about my project, she said I had to meet Barbara. Barbara, like me has a picture collection. Kinship! Twenty-five years ago a friend sent her a postcard of the New York Public library and, not too long after that, she went to Colorado and took a picture of a log cabin library and had them sitting next to each other on her desk.... and then other people started sending her pictures. She now has hundreds. One of the most unique? A book cart they use in a small town in Tennessee. Bellbuckle? This isn’t something unique, she said. She knows of a judge who collects pictures of court houses and a doctor who collects pictures of hospitals.

Kansas City, KS -- August 1, 2007

Reading The Brethren, by John Grisham. The Boathouse is his favorite book of all time.

He likes to read because it keeps your mind active, it puts you in different places and maybe you’d like to do something like what they're doing one day, too. If you don’t read, he said, you don’t grow.

If he were to write his own book it’d be about woodworking. He likes to read those books, too. And all how-to books.

Omaha, NE -- August 2, 2007

I always find it awkward arriving somewhere in the early hours of the morning when I’m not quite with it.

A woman at the Kansas City bus terminal, who was returning home to Omaha after visiting her sister in Texas, suggested I get off at the first Omaha stop and offered to draw me a map of the area we’d be disembarking at 5:30am-- the Old Market, a quaint part of town with cobbled brick streets. The bus terminal was in another part of town a few blocks away.

I couldn’t bear to get off at the Old Market and deal with real "outside the bus" people who expect "normal". I needed a little time between the hours of night and day to become a "normal" again. I needed the Greyhound station—sink, toilet, place to spill out my pack to put the guidebook on top, consolidate papers, stuff back the long underwear, gloves, hat, and sweatshirt that I needed for the air conditioned bus.

As we pulled away from the first Omaha stop, with me still trying to open my eyes, my friend, a few rows up, pointed at my map. “It’s okay,” she said, “I drew you two. One for each place.” I love people.

About a month and a day earlier, at my sticky note the a map of the United States dinner, before most of the guests arrived, my friend Jenny had bound my head up so I couldn’t see, turned me in circles, handed me a sticky note and faced me in front of the map. The sticky went on Omaha.

That morning, between stop one and stop two, as the bus groaned through in its geared down, beginning to rev up pace through the giant streets, spaced out big buildings that this country is full of, and I imagined a giant thumb descending onto the streets, sticking on a mammoth, fluttery yellow sticky note.

But there was no thumb-print spiral or sticky note showing me where to go to lay my head, even with my beautiful maps. I'd forgotten to ask my friend where to stay! After finding the cheapest hotel in the area--an Econo Lodge with an early check-in (which actually would have been full if I'd waited any longer--American Idol was in town), I took a hot shower, set my alarm for noon, when my friend said I'd be most likely to find readers, and conked out in the queen sized bed. Luxury. I hadn't slept horizontally since the night of the 28th.

I spent most of my time in Omaha in the Old Market area, barely making it to downtown, and didn't even get close to the Barnes and Nobles where the front desk clerk at the Econo Lodge told me I'd be sure to find readers. I just found the neighborhood comforting and I was trying to relax. Here's a picture of me (above) with a woman I found kinship with. I'm guessing, though that, Greyhound is more comfortable.

Omaha, NE -- August 2, 2007

Reading Lean Mean Thirteen, by Janet Evanovitch. She’s read all her books. Why has it taken her so long to getting around to reading this one (it came out a month ago)? She was reading a biography about Cleopatra, which was 964 pages. It chronicles Cleopatra's life and confronts the misconceptions people have about her. It’s written in diary format and is the product of a lot of research. Through reading it she was struck by how little has changed about humanity though technology and the world has changed.

Some of her favorite authors—Elizabeth Peters, Rex Stout, James Patterson and Clive Cussler.

She has written short stories and children’s stories. She started writing a fantasy type book, which she will finish... when she retires!

Omaha, NE -- August 3, 2007

At my Econo Lodge checkout--

I love it when I don't even have to go out of my way to look for readers! Reading Divine Evil, by Nora Roberts. She likes V.C. Andrews, Victoria Holt and the Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

Thanks!

Omaha, NE --Jackson Street Books -- August 2, 2007

Manning the desk at Jackson Street books, though she wished the owners could have been there--they're from San Francisco! The store’s patrons, she said, feel as though it’s the best bookstore in the Midwest....and I just happened to stumble upon it. Would you believe that, just before I came in she sold a book by Faulkner for $2,000. (that's not why she's laughing though....)

Recently she read Blindness, by Jose Scaramago. It’s about blindness becoming contagious and everyone, except for one woman, becomes blind. People become like animals. The book was made into a play, she said, but thought it’d be better as a horror movie.

Right now she’s reading Seven Mysteries of Life, by Guy Murchie , which she likes because you can just open it up and read it, it doesn’t have to be read sequentially. It’s about the interconnectedness of life.

Her favorite books are art books. She’s a painter and works with acrylic and oil and goes to art school in town.

Omaha, NE --The W. Dale Clark Public Library -- August 2, 2007

I had the pleasure of speaking with the community service specialist--thanks for taking the time to talk to me! ...contrary to what the picture looks like below, I think she had work to do!

She couldn't say enough nice things about their library or their director who can be summed up in one word--ambitious. She recently turned down an offer in Berkeley because her mission in Omaha was not accomplished—to put the Omaha Public Library on the map as a reason why Omaha is a great city. The library works to bring the community closer together.

The library is getting ready to launch their third “One Book, One Community” and has placed voting boxes in all of the libraries and other places around the community so that a vote can be made. In the running are: Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini; The Lady and the Panda, by Vicki Croke; the Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett; Peace Like A River, by Leif Enger; Singing and Dancing Daughters of God, by Timothy Schaffert; and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. (Last year the book was To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Also, for the first time, Omaha will be doing a book for children! The books will be revealed at the Omaha Lit Fest on September 14th.)

Right now she’s reading Devils in the Sugar Shop, by local author, Timothy Schaffert. She just started it. It’s a pretty wild book, describing Omaha’s underground sex scene and locations around town. Names of places, etc. are changed. The author is the founder of the Omaha Lit Fest.

Her favorite book of all time--Of Human Bondage, by William Somerset Maugham. It’s just amazing, she said. Other books that have grabbed her: The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel ; Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini; Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine, by Bebe Moore Campbell and A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mystry, which she said are stunning and help the reader to get acquainted with different cultures.

She gave me their annual report to look at—pretty amazing. By dressing up as Yoda and doing an imitation, one of the teen librarians got George Lucas to allow the library to show Star Wars; Ice-T came to talk to kids as the result of some donor money and, I could go on...check out their library online.

Her final words--I love this library!

Omaha, NE -- August 2, 2007

Reading Genevieve, by Eric Jerome Dickey. Her favorite book of all time, Madea's Don’t Make a Black Woman Take off Her Earrings, by Tyler Perry. He’s a playwright and she’s read all of his plays.

She had to run and catch her ride....thanks for your conversation!