Anything New?

  When I travel for work I'm usually traveling solo.  I describe the dynamics of seat assignment as airline seat roulette, namely you never know exactly who'll end up sitting next to you.  It might be a harried parent who immediately apologizes that you've hit the jackpot of sitting next to a precocious six year old who will keep you entertained for the next five hours.  Or you might end up sitting next to a spreadsheet crunching business person whose entire body is vividly expressing the do not talk to me sign.

  When someone does sit beside me and via words or body clues is interested in talking I quite often ask what they're reading.  As in... what's that novel?  Fact or Fiction?  Living or Dead?  The last of these questions referring to whether or not the author of said book is with us or a voice from the past.  My version of the airline seat jackpot is someone who'll introduce me to an author I've never read or a genre I've never seriously considered.

  I've noticed two things about the box of late.  First that it's primarily living authors.  I'm sure a book seller could give you the stats for what proportion of books in circulation are living versus historical authors.  I think the box reflects living authors because that's pretty much what folks buy.  I hear an author interview and buy Wild by Cheryl Strayed, my seatmate coming back from Hawaii once was reading a Colin Thubron novel and I was introduced to Shadows of the Silk Road.

  Have you read a different author who showed up in the box?  There have been so many new authors (the second thing I've noticed) that I've seen books come & go before I even had the chance to peruse them and even think of reading them.  I will recommend a new copy of The Places In Between by Rory Stewart.  I'm a huge fan of this book which shares a similarity with Thubron's book, or Cairo to Capetown (Correction: Dark Star Safari, Overland from Cairo to Capetown) by Paul Theroux which is another informative, eye opening travelogue of world places most of us will never dust with our boots.

  Check out the box... interesting Portland/Brooklyn literary magazine called Tin House that showed up, a new set of kids books (go Ninja Turtles) and a spattering of historical authors such as Middlemarch by George Elliot.  Ninja Turtles to Cormac McCarthy and a nineteen century woman writing as a man, to an Ursula Le Guin essay in Tin House.  Quite a variety for the neighborhood.

 And here's a nice note from a passerby:  Beautiful ~ I will make one on my street!  For poetry & for books.  Thank You So Much, Candice.