Street Finds - The Books of This Summer

There are many reasons I love Brooklyn. One of them is the mysterious exchange that happens on the sidewalks and stoops of our homes. I haven't seen this anywhere else. Even after six years just over the river in Manhattan. But, here in Brooklyn, we love to leave books and records outside for anyone to take.

I have built a beautiful, if worn, library from these finds. And I have left many, many of my own books at the foot of the tree directly in front of our building. They disappear like forgotten secrets. I feel better knowing they are in another's eager hands.

I always want to read what's new, what's now but, this summer, the streets have been talking. They've been saying, Melissa, you've missed the best. I'm almost embarrassed to admit I haven't yet read a single work of the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez or McEwan's most well-known, Atonement. Tyler's been nagging at me to read his beloved Simon Winchester. And others have shouted of Saunders and Patchett. I've managed to miss them all.

But, no more. These are the books that have found me this summer. I can't believe my good fortune. They've been waiting. It's time.

A Stack To Read

Here's another stack of books beside the bed.

A friend loaned me Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. This morning I found myself on the subway, standing next to a woman reading the same book.  This is not surprising given its popularity but I did like that we were both reading it without the jacket cover (I put it back on for the picture).  When I first glanced over, our pages appeared identical, each labelled an AMY ELLIOT DUNNE diary entry.  Upon closer inspection, I saw that the entry on her page was dated July 5, 2008. Mine: April 21, 2009.  I loved that we were in this strange time stretch together but I was just a few months ahead.  What I know she will know. What she read I read once. 

I found Hiaasen's Hoot on the sidewalk.  Friends with overflowing shelves gave me the rest of the stack. We can't keep them. Take them.

I like that this stack came to me, the bindings all worn, because they didn't quite fit where they were. These are books I didn't seek out.  But sometimes a book finds you.  Sometimes the list of desired books is too enormous, the wait at the New York Public Library too long, and maybe I think I know what I want to read but don't really, so I did something a little crazy. I pushed this spontaneous stack ahead of everything else. I'll put my faith here.

Have you read any of these books?  What are you reading?