The Book Shopper - Atlanta

MARTA Book Club #23: You Gotta Believe

If you doubt that people are taking note of what you are reading, check out the Underground New York Public Library, “featuring the Reading-Riders of the New York City subways.”

Just as the Underground New York Public Library is not affiliated with New York Public Library, the MARTA Book Club which has been surveying the reading habits of Atlanta commuters since November of 2009 (see MARTA book club link on the right).  Likewise, the MARTA book club has no affiliations with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, any reputable library, or with any literacy slash transportation advocacy group. The MARTA book club is an informal, decentralized book club, whose only requirement is reading something while riding a MARTA bus or train.

Compared to previous offerings, membership is down with only a few offerings. This could be attributed to fewer people reading books, more people reading on their e-readers or most likely, my lack of record keeping diligence (read laziness). My notes show I spotted people reading a few books since my last posting two months ago. They are:

Infinte Jest by David Wallace

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

The Book of Spiders by David Wong

Castles in the Air by Christina Dodd

Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern Slave, An International Art Dealer and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together  by Ron Hall, Denver More, and Lynn Vincent. 

The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill

A Short History of the World by Bill Bryson

The Holy Bible

The Power of the Praying Parent by Stormie Ormartian

A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth by William Styron

 

I am always cognizant of what I am packing bookwise. One my recent reading selections was the 10th anniversary issue of The Believer magazine. I suspect that normally, my fellow commuters think I am reading some religious tract like The Watchtower, which I've seen distributed regularly at the Avondale Station. This is understandable since riders do read a lot from the Christian genre.

Of course, Believer is almost the opposite of religious writing unless you think articles about art, music, books, and oddball topics ranging from an interview with swimmer Diana Dyad to "The Anatomy of Melancholia."  Obviously, the editors know this since the 10th Anniversary cover shown here with a group partying in a bathtub is “a play” on its name. (According to the editors was almost titled The Optimist.) I love dissonance. I keep subscribing to The Believer because in each issue there is some article that introduces me to a new writer (Rebecca Solnit, and Julie Hecht come to mind) or an idea.

Ironically, in the March/April issue I was introduce to both (via Nick Hornby's column on books) Francis Spufford's Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprisingly Emotional Sense. That's right. I am reading about a book about the forgotten strengths of Christianity. Could it rekindle my interest to become a believer? I will keep you posted.

MARTA Book Club #22: Where Pope Francis Meets Zadie Smith

There's been no shortage of praise for Pope Francis as a passionate preacher and pragmatic man who prefers public transportation to private cars. - CNN, March 15, 2013

Optimistic that someone will finally do something about “mass” transportation, I was motivated to pull together another installment of the MARTA Book Club, a list of what people are reading on Atlanta area buses and trains. His Holiness knows that waiting and waiting for transportation in the grimy underbelly of a city affords the perfect opportunity for reading, self-reflection and practicing patience. It's great that one of our own has gone on to bigger and better things so I am not taking offense that public transportation continues to sound like something for (working) poor, simple-minded, and humble folk. This is in comparison to the majority of commuters in Atlanta who ride their version of the Popemobile every day to work.

Thus inspired, here's a list of what people have been reading since our last installment of the MARTA Book Club:

Cold Hit by Linda Fairstein

Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories by Linda Russell

Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods

The Centurion's Wife (Acts of Faith, Book 1) by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn

The Bible (a perennial favorite of the MARTA faithful)

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Her Sky Cowboy: The Glorious, Victorious Darcys by Beth Ciotta

Beautiful Chaos (Beautiful Creatures) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillion

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (my contribution)

Books by H.P Lovecraft, Farley Mowat, and David Baldacci.

Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) is partially to blame for the lack of titles in MARTA Book Club #22. I have almost finished reading her novel about two “non-traditional” British families living in North London headed by the middle-aged Archie Jones who marries a Jamacian woman half his age and his Muslim Bengali friend, Samad Iqbal who has twin sons -- one of which Samad sends back to Pakistan to fortify his Muslim heritage. It is a book that I have found absorbing and her witty prose is rich without being oppressive. The book is  full of interwoven short sidebars that add to the completeness of narrative. It's a style and scope that I find similar to Jonathan Franzen, but I certainly think this is a much more enjoyable novel than Freedom, which I did not finish. (I did like Corrections though). Smith's White Teeth takes us into the multicultural world of our own backyard (kind of like riding MARTA) with intellect, grace and humor. And I picked it up for $8 at Books Again in Decatur.

For a complete history of the MARTA Book Club, visit the category link on the right and check out our Sponsor's link on the left for info about Books Again. 

 

MARTA BOOK CLUB #21: Election Forecast

Members of the MARTA Book Club, Atlanta's Premier Public Transportation Reading Club, welcome Keith Parker as the new MARTA General Manager/Chief Executive Officer, but even if he improves the lighting at the stations and maintains MARTA's schedule of long waits between trains and buses (allowing us more time to read), we hope that he doesn't expect to automatically be elected as the GM/CEO of our reading group.

You know how reading groups can be sometimes. The strong willed and the vociferous can start recommending books that you don't want to read. That's the beauty of the MARTA reading club. It is very decentralized. The only membership requirement is that you have to read a book while riding Metropolitan Atlanta's Regional Transportation Authority (apartment hunting guides, backs of lottery tickets and word search magazines do not count).

Here's a list of what people have been reading since the last MARTA #20 posting (for the complete list see the link of the right of the homepage). Please note that people who use electronic readers are not included in this list. As you can see from this Amazon's re-creation of what it looks like to read on public transportation ascertaining the title on an e-reader is impossible. Nevertheless, the most unrealistic aspect of this photo is that no one smiles on MARTA. It's up to Keith Parker to fix that. If he can, we will consider making him our book club's GM/CEO. And now the List:

Art Beyond the West by Michael Kampen-O'Riley

Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood

The Gods of Eden by William Bramley

Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life by Laurence Bergreen

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld

It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell and Tony Koltz

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Round House by Louise Erlich

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Fundamentals of Database Systems by Ramez Elmasri and Shamkan Navathe

MARTA Book Club #20: On the Eve of the Referendum

Like most riders, members of the MARTA book club have mixed – if not hostile – feelings about the current transportation referendum. Club members who have read such books as David Owen's Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability (2010) or Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us) (2008) know that building more roads is not the solution, but driving less is. But driving less requires better public transportation and anyone who uses public transportation in metro Atlanta (about 4 percent of the 2 million workers) knows that the “user experience” has a lot to be desired (stations that feel like Turkish baths in the summer, long waits for trains and buses, and the worse thing – tortuous Muzak versions of “I Could Have Dance All Night” and “The Long and Winding Road” playing in the background).

Still the biggest plus for public transportation in Atlanta is all the time you get to read, which is the only membership requirement for the MARTA Book Club. There are no meeting times, no organizational rules, no t-shirts, and no dues. Very convenient.

What We Have Been Reading

It's been a couple months since our last MARTA Book Club compilation (see the links category for all the lists) and there is much reading on the train to report. We regret since we cannot determine the title, electronic books are not tabulated.

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
7 Steps to Better Chess by Eric Schiller
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Canada by Richard Ford  My offering this month. Ford's lengthy book about a fifteen year old's long journey from a Montana childhood to young adulthood in Saskatchewan has the page count, but not intellectual oomph and satisfaction of his other novels, Independence Day or Lay of the Land.
East by Edith Pattou
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Black Robes, White Justice by Bruce Wright

MARTA Book Club #19: Yes, It Exists

The other day I was reading Gabriel Zaid's fine book about the pitfalls of author-as-celebrity worship, The Secret of Fame: The Literary Encounter is an Age of Distraction (2008), and a young man sitting next to me stares unabashedly at the cover of my book. I look up and I was slightly taken aback, because in book spotting, there is a unwritten rule of viewer discretion. So the man says to me, “I am always interested in finding out what people are reading.” I show him the Zaid book and told him that there is a secret brotherhood and sisterhood of readers and riders called The MARTA Book Club.

 “Really, you mean there is a MARTA book club!?!” he asked.

I gave him the website address, (just type MARTA Book Club in Google) and you can find us. The only membership requirement is to read a book while riding Atlanta public transportation.There are no meeting times, no organizational rules, no t-shirts, and no dues. Very convenient.

 What We Have Been Reading

It's been a couple months since our last MARTA Book Club compilation (see the links category for all the lists) and there is much reading on the train to report. We regret since we cannot determine the title, electronic books are not tabulated. Here's the last offerings:

Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger

Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences (Inside Technology) by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews

Agent X by Noah Boyd

Living Crazy Love: An Interactive Workbook for Individual or Small-Group Study by Francis Chan and Mark Beuving

Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Finding the Favor of God: A Discovery That Will Change Your Life by Ronnie W. Floyd

The Bill: How Legislation Really Becomes Law: A Case Study of the National Service Bill by Stephan Waldman

Research Methods in Information by Alison Jane Pickard

Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood

Schism and Continuity in an African Society a Study of Ndembu Village Life by Victor Turner and Bruce Kapferer

God Speaks to Me: Stories of Triumph Over Tragedy from Women Who Listened to God by Valerie Love

It by Stephen King

Structure in Architecture: The Building of Buildings by Mario George Salvadori

Susanna's Choice by Sara Luck

Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star by Kitty Kelley

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (thanks Emily Britt)

The Boss's Survival Guide by Bob Rosner, Allan Halcrow and Alan Levins

MARTA BOOK CLUB #18: What Atlanta is Reading

For where there is innovation, there is no security -- Procopius*

Are you looking to join the Atlanta book reading community without actually having to be involved? Then the MARTA Book Club might be the organization for you.

The MARTA Book Club is a loose— very loose— confederation of people who read while riding the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s public transportation. There are no meeting times, no organizational rules, no t-shirts, and no dues. Very convenient. The only requirement to be a member of MARTA Book Club is to read a book while riding public transportation, which for most riders seems to be a steep admission price.

What We Have Been Reading

It's been a couple months since our last MARTA Book Club compilation and there is much reading on the train to report. We regret since we cannot determine the title, electronic books are not tabulated.

 The Roman Way by Edith Hamilton

Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

The Rogers & Littleton Guide to America's Douchiest Colleges by H. L. Rogers and Peter Littleton

Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson* (I am currently reading this book at home because carrying it on the train is cumbersome and I don't e-book. So far, I think the book is much more interesting because it chronicles the early days of the personal computer industry. Jobs' obnoxiousness, brilliance and manipulative nature is of secondary interest to me. Hats off to Issacson's readable narrative. Issacson prose seems effortless, which is usually means a lot of hard work into it.

 Infinite Jest by David Wallace

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel or was it Racing in the Rain: My Life as a Dog (both) by Garth Stein (not to be confused My Life as a Dog by Reider Jonsson and Eivor Martinus, which was made into a fine movie by the director Lasse Hallstrom of Chocolat and Gilbert Grape fame).

 Successful Public Meetings: A Practical Guide by Elaine Cogan

 Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media by Susan J. Douglas

 Divine Inspiration: A Home Kelly Mystery by Jane Langton

 AIDs, Opium, Diamonds, and Empire by Nancy Turner Banks

 Just for You (Arabesque) by Doreen Rainey

 The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White

 Up to No Good by Carl Weber

 A Highlander Christmas by Janet Chapman

 No Disrespect by Sister Souljah

 The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered) by Charles E. Jones

 The Georgia Commercial Driver's License Manual (it's thicker than you think)

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson. My personal contribution to the book club. I heard him speak (he's both authoritative and humble) at the Decatur Library a few years ago when he was promoting the paperback release of The Day of Battle which is Part Two of his Liberation Trilogy. Atkinson writes in a narrative style that reminds me of Shelby Foote. The war in Italy is often pushed into the distant background, but it was a sad and bloody campaign and did serve a strategic purpose. (Rome fell a day before the landings in Normandy). Atkinson gives homage to those who bravely fought there and calls out both the good commanders and the shamefully incompetent ones.

Take the Cannoli: Essays from the New World by Sarah Vowell

 Juicing, Fasting, and Detoxing for Life: Unleash the Healing Power of Fresh Juices and Cleansing Diets by Cherie Calbom and John Calbom

 

MARTA Book Club #17: Welcome Clean Air Commuters

If you're visiting because of the newsletter article from the Midtown Alliance you have come to the right place. I appreciate the shout-out for the MARTA Book Club even though I am kicking myself for not trimming my beard for the photo opportunity. I guess I fit the stereotype of the scruffy reader. (Photo credit: John Cann)

If you're a commuter and you read on the bus or train, I hope you'll let add to the list via comment and sign up for blog updates at facebook.com/thebookshopper. If you want to see all the MARTA book club postings (and fully comphrehend the madness ) just click on the link in the right column.

 Here's a list of book spottings since the last posting.

 Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson

Thinking in Systems by Donna Meadows

Choices: Discover Your 100 Most Important Life Choices by Shad Helmsetter

Big Girls Do Cry by Carl Weber

The 5 Lessons Millionaires Taught Me About Life and Wealth by Richard Paul Williams

The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefield's: Discovering Hallowed Ground by Jeff Shaara

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

The Purpose Driven Life by Rich Warren

MARTA Book Club #16: Money to Burn

Even though mass transit fares are going up on October 2 for a second year in a row with single fares rising from $2 to $2.50 (25% increase), 30 day trip passes rising from $68 to $95 (40 % increase), and 20 trip passes rising from $34 to $42.50 (25% increase), the annual dues for MARTA Book Club remain the same – nil.

 For those unfamiliar with the group, the MARTA Book Club is a loose— very loose— confederation of people who read while riding the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s public transportation. There are no meeting times, no organizational rules, no t-shirts, and no dues. Very convenient. The only requirement to be a member of MARTA Book Club is to read a book while riding public transportation, which for most riders seems to be a steep admission price.

If rising fares weren't enough, have you seen the movie “Contagion” where this mysterious virus spreads throughout the world killing millions? Did you see how the virus spread? Through human contact on public transportation (and Gwynth Paltrow's adulterous character eating some snacks while sitting at a bar). Oh yeah!

Nevertheless, the MARTA book club marches on just as it always has. We just don't burn our card in protest and quit riding public transportation, (which is what the civic leaders want, judging from the oppressive rate hikes), we just get on that train or bus, put our nose in a book, and read.

 What We Are Reading

 Either our main book spotter hasn't been doing his job or the admission price to belong to the club is becoming too high, but the latest offering is a noticeably short list of what we have seen people have been reading since the last posting: (See link on the right for a history of MARTA book club postings)

Characters of Lust by Karlyn LeBlanc

Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar

The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

The Hiding Place by Carl Weber

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

American Corrections by Todd Clear

A Road More or Less Traveled by Stephan Otis and Colin Roberts

Chi Running: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running by Danny and Katherine Dreyer

Norton Anthology of World Literature

Small Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis by Justin Longenecker et. al

Novels by George R. Martin, John Grisham

Next Assignment: Keep reading, get to work on time, watch for wet spots (of all kinds) and send us your book contributions and observations via comment or visit our Facebook page at facebook.com/thebookshopper.

 

MARTA Book Club #15: When You Can't Go to the Beach and You Need a Vacation from Your Life*

“You read too, but you aren't an exhibitionist.” -- Tayari Jones, Leaving Atlanta

  For those unfamiliar with the group, the MARTA Book Club is a loose— very loose— confederation of people who read while riding the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s public transportation. There are no meeting times, no organizational rules, no t-shirts, and no special fares. Very convenient. The only requirement to be a member of MARTA Book Club is to read a book while riding public transportation.

Since we cannot determine the title of a book from a Kindle, they are not tabulated even though more and more electronic readers are being seen on the trains.

What We Are Reading: The list seems a little on the light side even though MARTA provides plenty of unscheduled opportunities for additional reading time. If you want to see all the past MARTA Book Club postings, just visit the MARTA Book Club link on the right side of this web page.  Here's what people are reading since our last posting:

Native Tongue by Carl Hiassen

Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagen (Thanks, John)

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Deception Point by Dan Brown

Freakanomics by David Leavitt and Stephen Dubner

Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Expect to Win by Carla A Harris

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA by Terry Reed

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

First Offense by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

What's His is Mine by Daaimah S. Poole

The Dog of the South by Charles Portis.

Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones (see earlier posting)

MARTA Book Club #14: Green and Read Metropolis

For anyone remotely interested in regional transportation issues check out the MARTA  Book Club's Book of the Month, David Owen's Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability. Now that Oprah's Book Club will soon be sunk into anonymity, the MARTA Book Club – a loose— very loose— confederation of people who read while riding the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s public transportation – is ready to fill the void.

The premise of Owen's book is that the greenest city in America is New York City, because the population density and smaller domiciles coupled with the availability of alternative methods of transportation makes it --- based on energy consumption per capita – a model metropolis (in terms of its environmental sensibilities) . Owens looks at cities throughout the world (including Atlanta), talks about the paradoxes of green consumerism and that the real solutions are relatively simple, except they require a change in mindset of a planet and their relationship with the automobile (not so simple).

If you read this book while riding MARTA you will feel very good about yourself and you will be eligible to join the MARTA Book Club. There are no meeting times, no organizational rules, no t-shirts, and no special fares. Very convenient.

What We Are Reading: Here's what other people just are reading since our last posting. We regret since we cannot determine the title of a electronic book they are not tabulated. If want to see all the MARTA Book Club postings, just visit the links to the category MARTA on the right side of this web page.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass

Grace (Eventually) Thought on Faith by Anne Lamott

Debt Cures They Don't Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau

Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) by Barbara Kingsolver

Doo Hickey: A Novel by Pete Hautman

The Lost by J.D. Robb, et.al