paper over kindle

it was around 6:30pm on tuesday, when i got on the bus to go back home.

usually, it’s a pretty tragic ride —- the bus route wiggles up the hill, and a swarm of commuters tumble and topple over each other’s feet, unless they’re lucky enough to grab a seat. the vast majority of them carry the worst, post-8-hour-work-day expressions on their faces and look for quick distractions. it’s also a pain in the ass when one or two people have to get off the bus, and ten others have to writhe to make way.

i must’ve been one of these ten people, when i noticed an older guy standing next to me holding a murakami book flooding with fluorescent stickie notes.

i, too, had been carrying around the same book and reading it on the same bus only a few weeks prior. so i casually commented, “i just finished that book for the second time — how do you like it so far?” and he answered, “i just started it, a friend of mine let me borrow it!”

so then, we continued on with our lighthearted conversation about books, about virginia woolf and ian mcewan. during a mere fifteen-minute bus ride, i learned that he works for a translation agency, which led to a brief but thoughtful discussion about how translated text could lose some things (my point of view), and gain other things (his).

right before my stop, he told me he was glad to have shared a conversation with me all because he was holding a paperback novel, instead of an electronic version of norwegian wood. the placement of text, the quality/texture of paper between your fingers, the dog-eared pages, the strangers’ names in used copies that i own. and the opportunity to spark up such a genuine conversation. i prefer paper over kindle.

twin peaks, san francisco, ca —- april 2012