On my bus route today I had Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse out, since I was in the home stretch of reading it. A woman noticed. She noticed a couple of times, since we ran into each other a couple of times She was tickled at seeing someone reading Christie. We had a nice chat about books and she recommended this used bookstore. Nice convo overall. Oh, she's married and there were no overtones or undertones or any of that, if you're wondering.
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I remember getting a few surprised reactions on buses and at bus stops when I was reading Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Of course that was when he was in the news because of having to go into hiding for having written the book. Looking back I'm not sure it was a great novel but it was interesting enough for anybody who knew even a little about Islam and, yes, I noticed a couple of parts that may have been questioned by the excessively faithful.
But, anyway, conversations like the one you had with that woman don't happen as often as they used to do for the obvious reason most people can't take their eyes, or fingers, off their phones. That was a good thing for both of you - I hope the bookstore she mentioned turns out to be a useful resource. As for the overtones and undertones, no, I wasn't actually wondering.. but if there ever are I'm sure you'll let us know.
Jer asked me to give you this link to a poster that still greets the children every time they return from eating their lunch outdoors in winter. You can't make this stuff up.
I imagine that even people who hadn't heard what was going on/had gone on with Rushdie would be diverted by the title . The name "Satan" frequently has that effect. Of course this one book blew up in a few ways that Rushdie couldn't have predicted.
You're very right that so many people are glued to their phones. A few years back I was getting on a bus. Well, the driver didn't have his head in the game, apparently, and only thought of dropping off the people getting off. He closed the door on my arm before he realized what he was doing. I screamed, of course, but the girl waiting behind me said nothing about it, or even the fact that the bus had almost left without her.
The lady I was talking to last week was married, so I just wanted to be clear on things.
That's a good philosophy that Poster Michelle Obama has. She might want to share it with the people running things in this country.
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