Spotted: Decoded by Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter

Where: D.C. Metro, red line
Who was reading: A woman with a sensible haircut and an even more sensible gold earring. Presumably there were 2 earrings, but I only saw her in profile.

And what's the deal with that book? It's sort of a memoir and sort of a concordance of Jay-Z's lyrics, unpacking the wordplay, symbolism, and allusions to real-life events.

Do you have a favorite Jay-Z song? Probably D'Evils or Regrets, both from the album "Reasonable Doubt." Because they're both so sad, you know? I guess I'd give the edge to "Regrets"; it has a more interesting beat.

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.

Spotted: The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille

Where: N-train

Who was reading: An elderly lady who spent most of the train ride contorting the pucker of her mouth around a hard candy.

But what kind of candy was it: Beats me, maybe butterscotch? Old people like butterscotch, don’t they? That stuff is tasty. . . . And no, that doesn’t make me an old biddy—if anything is speeding up my early onset biddy-fication it’s the fact that I take Metamucil.

According to PW (via Amazon ): "As a sardonic morality tale of one man's self-willed disintegration, the impact is flattened by its elitist narrator's patrician tones." Zing!

Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care About Has Borderline Personality Disorder by Paul T. Mason and Randi Kreger

Where: R-train

Could that title be any longer? As a matter of fact, it could. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world's longest book title is 1433 characters (290 words) long and belongs to a 2007 book by David Ciliberti. The full title can be found here.
Who was reading: An elderly gentleman sitting up very straight, holding the book precisely at eye-level. He wore a black felt hat brimmed in brown leather and a pumpkin-colored shirt tucked into high-waisted slacks.
A lot of times . . . self help books seem just plain silly to me: think like a lady, act like a man, buy your inner child a pack of smokes and lose 10-15 pounds. But in this case, I legitimately hope the man I saw reading is able to stop walking on eggshells and take his life back.

Spotted: The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

Where: N-train
Who was reading: An immaculately dressed woman with somewhat birdlike features reading a well-thumbed paperback.
Contrary to what Vogue would have you believe: feminine mystique has little or nothing to do with donning a pair of 1940s-inspired shorts.
Rather, it refers to: Friedan's hypothesis that patriarchal society values women solely for their contributions to home and family, and deprives them of the opportunity to find meaningful vocations outside of the home.
Widely credited with: sparking the contemporary women's movement.
#7 on . . . HumanEvents.com's list of the 10 most harmful books.

Spotted: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Where: Red-line

Who was reading: A stylish African American woman dressed in all-khaki save for a pair of red patent leather heels and a shiny red alligator handbag.
Can shiny red alligators be found in the wild? Only in Communist countries.

If this book were a tour de force, what would it be equal in scope to? "the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon." (via the publisher)
Amazon-user Jenny calls this: "The Defining book of my 30th year." (read full review)

A Tale of Two Tomes: The Holy Bible & The Girl Who Played with Fire

Where: R-train
Who was reading: A mustachioed, middle-aged man in brown trousers, green fleece and a blue raincoat.
From halos to hell-fires: He spent maybe 10 minutes with the bible and closer to 40 on the Stieg Larsson.
Peeking out from the Bible's pages were: Post-its and receipts. Is nothing sacred?
Besides which: he was totally leaning against the car door. You know, the one with the "Do not lean" sign? I guess he bows to a higher authority than the MTA.
But that's no excuse for the fact . . . that he slid open said door to toss a just-used Kleenex onto the tracks. Have our cultural expectations deteriorated so far that this is considered acceptable behavior? I cringe to ponder the answer.

Spotted: A black-and-white Harriet the Spy style notebook

Where: N-train

Who was Reading: An absurdly cute Chinese girl-child in a cherry-red toggle-coat, with swinging feet that didn’t nearly reach the floor. Odds that she was a modern-day Harriet were slim, however, since her Mom was reading over her shoulder.

But please, do go on about the notebook: It was a Mead Square Deal Composition Book in Black Marble.

Jennifer on DiscountOfficeItems.com says: "Great price, great product . . . Yes, I would recommend this to a friend."

Spotted: First, Do No Harm by Lisa Belkin

Publishers Weekly sums it up: "a detailed account of the rigorous moral and ethical considerations given to decisions made in the cases of several patients at Hermann Hospital in Houston, Tex., in the mid to late 1980s."

Where: N-train

Who was reading: A woman with wavy black hair, chipped turquoise nail polish and purple-and-white Shape-Ups (ie. sneakers that make you lose weight) with non-ironic glittery purple laces.

Do so-called “fitness sneakers” actually make you more toned?  I couldn't say first-hand since this particular woman was wearing a modest derriere-concealing coat, but from what I’ve heard, no.

Spotted: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Digital Reading Device: Kindle. Yes it is possible to see what people are reading on these things, you just have to be really rude.

Where: D-train

Who was Reading: Heavyset woman decked out in work-appropriate beige. Scarlet talons and a shiny leopard-print scarf suggested she would be just as comfortable in the jungle as the boardroom.

Bonus Points: Only one handbag.

Spotted: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Where: R-train
Who was reading: A rumpled red-head in a rumpled coat.
Her copy of the book was looking:  Pretty beat up. As though it had survived monsoon season in Bali, been used as a napkin at a tomato-intensive Italian feast, and struggled to get over a nasty divorce, with, idunno, the dust jacket?
But actually: I'm guessing it was just dropped in the bath-tub.
THEN! within seconds of transferring trains, I saw someone reading a book with the eerily similar title: Women, Food & God.
Maybe Secretly . . . We're all reading the same book, only dressed up in different words. Spooky.

Spotted: A Mysterious Manuscript

Where: Q-train
Single-sided pages or double? Single. Sorry Planet Earth.
Who was reading: A young woman wearing grandmotherly oval-shaped spectacles and a tote-bag that read "Pantheon Graphic Novels" in a four-panel spread with each word set–inexplicably—in its own dialogue bubble.
If I were a betting woman . . . I'd say she was an editor for Pantheon
What do I hope the manuscript was? Hmm. Something new by Jessica Abel would be nice.