Spotted: C by Tom McCarthy

Where: Q-train

Who was reading: A middle-aged man clad in a potpurri of browns, olives and grays. 10-1 odds he listens to NPR.

Speaking of which… We should all do our best to help save federal funding for NPR! True, most of their budget comes from listener support, but it’s the principle of the thing…

Anyway, the plot sounds fascinating. We follow Serge, the protagonist, through a childhood experimenting with gadgets and receiving Morse-code handjobs from his sister, to a stint as a soldier photographing military installations behind enemy lines in WWI. Invariably he’s confined to a German POW camp where he digs tunnels, not in pursuit of escape, but masturbatory solace. The post-war period contains further adventures, which I will not reveal here, but to say they involve heroine, architecture and academia.

This one time... I was talking to an editor from Knopf, and I asked “What book are you most excited about these days?” The editor said “C” and told me a little bit about it, at which point I was like “OMG. That sounds soooo neat.” And the editor kind of looked around uncomfortably like maybe there was someone more important he needed to be talking to.

Someone more important (Jennifer Egan) says: “Like life, which we overinterpret at our peril, this strange, original book is—to its credit—a code too nuanced and alive to fully crack.” (complete review)

Dear valued reader

First of all, I must apologize for the lack of posts over the weekend. Life gets chaotic, you know? And moving apartments in the winter is almost always a bad idea. Anyway, from now on I'll only be posting during the week, except in emergencies—like if I see someone reading Anthony Trollope (swoon!). But between monday and friday you can still expect to see daily updates.

Second, a belated thank you to NPR's Monkeysee blog —particularly Linda Holmes of Morning Shots— for the lovely, lovely write-up of The Book Spy last week. Those who know my super-secret identity may also know that I'm a die-hard NPR fan. In fact, my clock radio is set to play two solid hours of WNYC every single morning. The fact that someone from an organization I admire so much would take notice of my fledgling blog made me feel like a total rock-star. So thank you Linda, thank you NPR and thank you readers. It's delightful to know that I'm not alone in my voyeuristic curiosity about what other people are reading.

Spotted: Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Where: R-train

Who was reading: A middle-aged woman with a sweet-as-honey face framed by a tidy black bob and an argyle scarf in kelly-green and picture book pink.

And for footwear? She wore fluffy blue socks rolled over the tops of black sneakers.

Why does this book sound so familiar? Because it was advertised semi-constantly on NPR a few months ago.

But I thought the whole point of NPR was that it doesn't run ads .... Think again. It'll add an extra note of bitterness the next time you have to suffer through pledge drive.