Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Books not to be seen reading in public

Standing room only again in the metro the other morning. I'm used to it. I pull out my novel.

I feel someone's eyes on me. A middle-aged man, balding, bespectacled, seated in front of me.

He's not staring at me so much as he's leering at my book. Still, unpleasant.

I'm reading The End of the World in Breslau, by Marek Krajewski. (Excerpt.)

The spectacular cover art gracing the English translations of the Eberhard Mock investigations, from Quercus Publishing, is by Andrzej Klimowski.

Here. Take a good, close look.

3 comments:

Stefanie said...

Heh, no wonder the guy was staring at your book! Very brave to carry that onto public transit :)

Shelley said...

I just recently read a book with nudity on the cover. It wasn't very offensive or anything, but I had one of those cheap cloth book covers my kids use for their textbooks so I covered it with that. But why deprive fellow commuters of such entertainment ;).

Isabella K said...

Bravery had nothing to do with it — I just didn't think. I am still carrying it on public transit. I haven't resorted to a book cover, but I'm a bit more mindful of other people's sensibilities — a well-placed hand usually does the trick.