Books, Books, And More Books

I am a die-hard lover of the printed word. And one of the joys of walking (or riding mass transit) in New York, especially in Manhattan, is finding reading material unexpectedly.

While walking home after shopping at Trader Joe's on Columbus Avenue, I found lying on the sidewalk the December 9, 2019 issue of People magazine that had Tom Hanks on the cover.

A few days later, on the M5 bus heading uptown on Broadway, I found a copy of The New Yorker (December 16, 2019 issue) that someone had tucked in the corner of a window seat.

Two weeks ago, next to two other books on top of a garbage can, there was a book called Life Doesn't Frighten Me, with artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat and poetry by Maya Angelou. As I was crossing the street, with the book tucked under an arm, a young policeman (a rookie?) on foot patrol did something out of the ordinary, he said to me "Good Morning."  I responded, " Good Morning." I turned around and said, "A friendly policeman! That's good!" (His partner didn't say a word.) Maybe the young cop was a Basquiat fan and when he saw Basquiat's name on the cover, it brought out his friendly side.

One of my best finds was a box of books, all paperback, also near the garbage area. The building was down the street from where I live. Fortunately, I had some plastic bags with me. I took only the books that interested me such as The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman, The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin, The Alienist by Caleb Carr, The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, and Best Food Writing 2015, edited by Holly Hughes.

And yesterday, coming from my eye doctor's office in Harlem, I discovered, you guessed it, on top of a garbage can shed in front of an apartment building, a book of essays by Teju Cole that someone no longer wanted or needed. It's called Known and Strange Things, published in 2016.

These books are now permanent residents in my already book-cluttered apartment.