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November 28, 2006
New York Noshes
We just spent Thanksgiving with our son in New York. Tyler lives in DUMBO -- Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass -- in a neighborhood he loves. My favorite way to get to his apartment is to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, completed shortly after the Civil War. Not only does this bridge provide a spectacular view of the city, it connects me with the past.
Other highlights of our trip east: watching the balloons being blown up for the Macy's parade on Wednesday night (we were there with 5 or 6 million of our closest friends); paying a visit to the Met and my all time favorite painting of Joan of Arc, by Jules Bastien-Lepage -- an immense canvas, maybe 10 feet wide by 15 feet high -- as she hears her voices for the first time; breakfast at Scotty's Diner (okay, not my favorite but Neil loves it); window shopping on 5th Avenue; watching the ice skaters at Rockefeller Center; being able to walk in a crowd any time of day or night. I also got the chance to visit my editor, Michelle Poploff -- I won the editorial lottery with her -- and the great people at Delacorte/Random House. Did I mention that on Monday, when we left, it was 65 degrees as we strolled through Central Park and that we came home to snow and 26 in Seattle?
I noticed something this trip to the Big Apple. Everywhere I went, people were reading. Nine out of ten subway riders are reading something: a book, a magazine, Bibles, subway schedules, textbooks, subway poems, graffiti. And the bookstores! I could hardly walk through the aisles without tripping over someone crouched over in philosophy or world history or humor. And there were hip looking teens with books in their hands -- one young couple was completely intertwined, each reading separate titles. I'd never seen anything so cool in my whole life!
As a writer, this was, of course, a great comfort to me. There are people buying, borrowing and reading books! My accountant is thrilled. But, more importantly, this was a comfort to me as a person, as an American, as a member of this more-than-slightly mixed up world. Because if people read, they can't help but think. If people read, they can't help but see new sights, hear new sounds, feel new feelings. If people read, they may act in new ways.
People aren't reading?
Fuggedaboutit.
Posted by kirby at November 28, 2006 04:51 PM
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